MIDDLE EAST - As the holy month of Ramadan is set to start at the end of the week, Israel Police are preparing to “ensure prayers take place safely and securely while maintaining public order,” its Spokesperson's Unit announced in a statement on Tuesday. The Muslim holiday of Ramadan is marked by fasting from sunrise to sunset, prayer, reflection, and community. Muslims believe this month is when the Quran was revealed to the Prophet Muhammad. Israel Police noted that terrorist organizations exploit Ramadan to “incite and disseminate misleading narratives about events in Jerusalem, especially in the Old City and on the Temple Mount.” False publications and narratives — such as misleading images, edited videos, slogans, and music — can influence the behavior of young people at holy sites, they added, and can provoke unrest. Hamas responded by condemning Israeli attempts to "desecrate" and "impose control" on the site. They called for members of the public to intensify confrontations with the Israel Police.

USA - Vice President JD Vance’s speech to Europe’s leaders at the Munich Security Conference on February 14 underscored how far Europe has fallen away from its reverence of true democracy and freedom, experts told the Daily Caller News Foundation. Vance’s speech slammed the nations of Europe for not adhering to democratic principles such as freedom of speech and fair elections, pointing to examples such as the cancelling of Romanian elections and the UK’s conviction of Adam Smith-Connor for praying outside of an abortion clinic, among many other examples.

UK - The United Kingdom is falling in line with President Donald Trump’s demand that European countries pay their fair share on defense. British Prime Minister Keir Starmer announced on Tuesday that his government would raise its military spending to 2.5 percent of GDP by 2027 and to three percent by the end of the next government’s term. “This government will begin the biggest sustained increase in defense spending since the end of the Cold War,” Starmer said. The Labour leader added that the increase would be partly funded by reducing the foreign aid budget from 0.5 to 0.3 percent, explaining that spending increases “can only be funded through hard choices.” “At times like this, the defense and security of the British people must always come first,” he said.

USA - The “healthcare industry” in the United States has become one gigantic money making scam, and tens of millions of American families now live in great fear of illness and disease. Why are they so afraid? It is because a single trip to the hospital can ruin you financially. Even if you are covered by health insurance, medical debt can still wreck your finances. In fact, most of the people that go bankrupt due to medical bills actually have health insurance. Meanwhile, on the other side there are lots of people that are becoming fabulously wealthy from this system. Our “healthcare industry” has turned large numbers of doctors, lawyers, health insurance company executives and pharmaceutical company executives into multi-millionaires.

USA - What is our society going to look like if “the biggest fraud in history” is brought to a screeching halt? Elon Musk and his DOGE team have been taking a meat axe to federal agency after federal agency, but Social Security is the big Kahuna. According to the Social Security Administration, in 2025 approximately 69 million Americans will be receiving Social Security payments each month, and those payments will come to a grand total of approximately 1.6 trillion dollars for the entire year. It appears that the Social Security program is being victimized by fraud on a massive scale. If those fraudulent payments stop going out, those that have been living the high life at our expense are going to be extremely, extremely angry.

USA - The US promise of NATO membership for Kiev triggered the hostilities, Donald Trump’s special envoy to the Middle East, Steve Witkoff, has said. The Ukraine conflict was “provoked” and it is wrong to solely blame Russia, Steve Witkoff, a senior adviser to US President Donald Trump, has said. Moscow had to respond to a security threat created by the West’s promises to accept Ukraine into NATO, he stated. Witkoff made the remarks in an interview published by CNN on Tuesday, in which he was asked whether Washington was choosing the right side by holding talks with Moscow instead of continuing to funnel aid to Kiev.

USA - A year ago, if someone had told me that the United States would pressure Ukraine into paying reparations, demand that Russia no longer be called an ‘aggressor’, float the idea of annexing Canada, and chide Western Europe for its lack of democracy – I would have laughed it off. Yet here we are, in February 2025, and what once seemed absurd has become reality. It is no exaggeration to say that we are witnessing perhaps the most dramatic shift in US foreign policy since the early 20th century.

VATICAN - Twelve years after being elected Pontiff in 2013, Pope Francis remains very controversial, with his leftist ideas alienating the conservatives both inside the Church and in the wider field of Catholic faithful. He is regarded as having packed the College of Cardinals with men with his own political pedigree to ensure that the next head of the Church would be a leftist like him. Out of 138 Cardinals eligible to vote for the next Pope – under the age of 80 – no less than 110 were appointed by Pope Francis – about 80 percent.

SCOTLAND - Pagans and humanists were prevented from participating in an event celebrating the 850th anniversary of Glasgow after Catholic and Protestant leaders joined forces to silence them, it has emerged. Representatives of a number of faiths gathered at Glasgow Cathedral last month to mark the anniversary of Scotland’s largest city gaining burgh status in 1175. However, representatives of the Scottish Pagan Federation (SPF) and the Humanist Society of Scotland (HSS) were prevented from speaking after Christian figures expressed strong opposition.

GERMANY - The leader of Alternative for Germany (AfD) has said it will be the largest party in Germany by the next election after the far-Right movement finished second to the mainstream conservatives in Sunday’s federal election. Alice Weidel said her party could “overtake the CDU [Christian Democratic Union] within the next few years for the next election... to become the strongest force” in Germany. Her claims were backed by Elon Musk, who called her to offer his congratulations after it was announced her party had won 20 per cent of the vote.

GERMANY - The German elections have taken place and the Bundestag is looking a lot more right-wing than it was this time yesterday. The centre-right CDU (Christian Democratic Union) led by Friedrich Merz will take power having won just over 28 percent of the vote. But in second place and surging to just over 20 percent of the vote was the AfD (Alternative for Deutschland). Having drawn controversy and even comparisons to the Nazi party for promoting the closure of Germany’s borders as well as the mass deportations of migrants, they are now set to be the official opposition. But with a coalition required to make a working majority, is it undemocratic of the CDU to refuse to go into partnership with the AfD when they won so many votes?

GERMANY - As of Monday, the election results show that the AfD and the hard-Left Die Linke party should have enough combined MPs to block legislation in the Bundestag. This is known as a “blocking minority”. Mr Merz now needs to build a coalition government, a process that could take several months and involve a fair few hurdles. That should not be an issue for Mr Merz’s most urgent policy area, migration, as the AfD is unlikely to oppose any measures that improve border security. But in areas like energy policy, the new government could struggle to pass laws if it ends up upsetting both Alice Weidel, the AfD leader, and Heidi Reichinnek, the leader of Die Linke.

GERMANY - Germany’s mainstream parties have ruled out negotiations with the AfD but the Trump administration is piling on the pressure to allow them into government. “There’s no room for firewalls,” Vice-President JD Vance said at the Munich Security Conference this month after the party was endorsed by Elon Musk. The vice-president met Alice Weidel, the AfD leader, straight after that speech - having snubbed Chancellor Scholz for a similar meeting. German coalition talks typically take months before an agreement is reached. But this round could be even more complicated as German politics fragments. Reinhard Bütikofer, a former Green MEP, said he believed Mr Merz would not breach the firewall but it could be undermined with pacts struck at regional levels of government. “I would say that there’s more volatility with regards to the democratic system altogether than we’ve seen in many years,” he said.

GERMANY - Enjoying strong support among younger voters who are worried about job security and rapid cultural change, AfD could form Germany’s government after the next scheduled federal elections in 2029. Whether that happens depends in large part on Germany’s ability to stage a dramatic economic recovery. For the last quarter century, Germany has been fuelled by cheap energy from Russia and lucrative exports to China. That model is now broken, just as a resurgent Donald Trump is upending Nato and threatening tariffs on the EU, leaving the world’s fourth-largest economy mired in stagnation and angst about the future. Above all, Merz must kick-start an ailing economy, possibly by loosening the constitutional brake on borrowing, but most definitely by launching supply-side reforms encouraging competition. That involves cutting through Germany’s notorious red tape.

GERMANY - Violence erupted on the streets of Germany on Sunday evening as left-wing demonstrators clashed with far-right activists in Gelsenkirchen, just hours after the country’s latest election results sent shockwaves through the political establishment. The unrest came as police oversaw a rally and march under the slogan: "Solidarity is our choice. Against the shift to the right, war, and crisis". Meanwhile, violent scenes also played out in Berlin, where a protest against the AfD's election party in Wittenau, north-west of the German capital, Berlin, left multiple people injured.