HOLLAND - Far-right Dutch politician Geert Wilders has stated that Islam and freedom are “not compatible,” slamming his country for “importing” those who follow the religion. “Dutch values are based on Christianity, on Judaism, on humanism. Islam and freedom are not compatible,” the Freedom Party politician told USA Today. “You see it in almost every country where it dominates. There is a total lack of freedom, civil society, rule of law, middle class; journalists, gays, apostates — they are all in trouble in those places. And we import it.”

USA - Universities are the cradle of free speech, where ideologies and ideas clash, where academics and activists can agree, disagree, or be disagreeable. This is particularly true in the United States, where the First Amendment zealously guards against government surveillance and intrusion into free speech. Yet at hundreds of campuses across the country, administrators encourage students to report one another, or their professors, for speech protected by the First Amendment, or even mere political disagreements. The so-called "Bias Response Teams" reviewing these (often anonymous) reports typically include police officers, student conduct administrators and public relations staff who scrutinize the speech of activists and academics. This sounds like the stuff of Orwell, although even he might have found the name "Bias Response Team" to be over-the-top.

USA - A senior aide to Donald Trump has warned the European Union that it can expect "hostility" after Britain leaves the European Union, according to reports. Steve Bannon, the White House chief strategist, is understood to have informed Germany's ambassador to Washington that the new US administration hopes to conduct future relations with Europe on a bilateral basis. The President's aide also told Peter Wittig that he viewed the EU as a flawed construct, sources have told Reuters. Sources who were briefed on the meeting said the talks between Mr Bannon and Mr Wittig had confirmed the view that European leaders should prepare for a policy of "hostility towards the EU". The latest diplomatic incident comes after an outgoing US ambassador suggested that Mr Trump supports the break-up of the European Union in the wake of Brexit.

USA - President Donald Trump is junking former President Barack Obama’s unpopular federal pro-transgender policies, according to the White House spokesman. The policy reversal will likely protect single-sex civic groups and institutions — including single-sex bathrooms — across the nation from lawsuits and will put new pressure on federal judges to preserve the central role of biology in defining whether a person is male or female. The new policy is a big defeat for gay advocacy groups and for progressives, who want judges to declare that people can change their legal sex when their “gender identity” changes from day to day. The announcement came Tuesday from White House spokesman Sean Spicer, who said, “the president has maintained for a long time that this is a states’ rights issue and not one for the federal government.”

MIDDLE EAST - Terror group chief Hassan Nasrallah advises Jewish state to ‘count to a million’ before starting conflict with Lebanon. Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah on Monday doubled down on his recent saber-rattling against Israel and warned that his terror group would not hold back from attacking sensitive Israeli targets if the Jewish state goes to war with Lebanon. During a television interview with Iran’s state-run Islamic Republic News Agency, the terror chief repeated a previous threat to fire rockets at Israel’s nuclear reactor in Dimona and at a huge ammonia storage tank in Haifa. Hezbollah will not keep to any “red lines” in a future war with Israel, Nasrallah cautioned.

FRANCE - The leader of France’s National Front, Marine Le Pen, has opted to cancel a meeting with Lebanon’s Grand Mufti rather than wear an Islamic veil. Ms Le Pen is in the country to meet its leaders ahead of the first round of voting in France’s Presidential elections in April, in which she is expected to top the polls. But when offered a scarf to wear to a scheduled meeting with the Sunni religious leader, the Grand Mufti Sheikh Abdul Latif Derian, she declined. “I met the grand mufti of Al-Azhar,” she told reporters, referring to a 2015 visit to Cairo’s historical centre of Islamic learning. “The highest Sunni authority didn’t have this requirement, but it doesn’t matter. You can pass on my respects to the grand mufti, but I will not cover myself up,” she said.

EUROPE - Angela Merkel has led the European push back against Donald Trump’s demands of an immediate increase in defence spending or risk the US scaling back its commitment to Transatlanic protection. The German Chancellor has resisted the ultimatum, claiming Germany will not speed up on any existing plans to ramp up the country’s military budget by 2024. Her defiance has been met with backing from the president of the European Commission, Jean-Claude Juncker, who has insisted countries not cave in to President Trump’s demands. Earlier this week, US Defence Secretary James Mattis warned NATO that political times had changed since Trump’s election, meaning it was no longer possible for allies to shirk their defence responsibilities.

GERMANY - In the run-up to the Munich Security Conference this weekend, leading German foreign policy experts are calling on the EU to reposition itself on the world stage, replacing the United States as the West's "torchbearer." Since Washington's change of government, the United States no longer "qualifies as the symbol of the West's political and moral leadership," according to Wolfgang Ischinger, Chair of the Munich Security Conference. It is therefore up to Europe "to make up for this loss." If there is sufficient coherence necessitating, for example, majority decisions in foreign policy, "we Europeans" could become an "impressive political and military power," Ischinger cajoled.

GERMANY - Two days after the Pentagon's new chief Jim Mattis appeared before a full conference room in Brussels, and issued an ultimatum to NATO to boost spending or risk a cut in US support, Germany's Defense Minister Ursula von der Leyen "fired a salvo of warnings" back at Washington, cautioning it against hurting European cohesion, abandoning core Western values and seeking a rapprochement with Russia behind the backs of its allies. In a hard-hitting speech at the Munich Security Conference against President Donald Trump's administration, German Defence Minister Ursula von der Leyen urged the United States not to take transatlantic ties for granted. "Our American friends know well that your tone on Europe and NATO has a direct impact on the cohesion of our continent," the German minister told the Munich Security Conference. "A stable European Union is also in America’s interest, as is a strong and unified NATO," she said quoted by AFP.

USA - The possibility of World War Three breaking out is now a very “serious threat”, a prominent economic historian has warned. Donald Trump’s election and the Brexit vote suggests people are losing faith in globalisation and it could result in a new world conflict, Harold James of Princeton University suggests. “I think [a world war] is absolutely a serious threat,” he said in an interview with Sky News.

EUROPE - The euro could soon crack under the pressure of political mayhem in the eurozone as banks are failing to accept populist parties will win upcoming elections, according to leading forecasts. The currency is set to crash below parity with the US dollar in the coming months amid crucial elections in Germany and France, a top economist has predicted. Sentiment in the eurozone has plunged in recent weeks amid lower than expected growth and Greece's debt crisis once again threatening to split the bloc. The growing popularity of France's anti-Brussels candidate Marine Le Pen has also alarmed markets, amid her pledge to call a Frexit referendum should she win the election. Jonathan Loynes from Capital Economics "We are not inclined to abandon our negative position on the single currency. We suspect that the markets are still underestimating the potential implications of political developments in Europe."

RUSSIA - Russia, which no longer denies its engagement with the Taliban jihadists fighting American service members and the Islamic State, recently expressed dismay towards the US military presence in Afghanistan. Late last year, an unnamed Taliban official told Reuters that the jihadist group has maintained “significant contacts” with Russia since at least 2007. “We had a common enemy,” said the senior Taliban official. “We needed support to get rid of the United States and its allies in Afghanistan and Russia wanted all foreign troops to leave Afghanistan as quickly as possible.”

MIDDLE EAST - Hezbollah leader says all of Israel now under threat: 'We can strike any part of Israel, we can hit Dimona nuclear reactor.' The Hezbollah terrorist organization warned Israel it could strike anywhere in the country, and threatened to hit the nuclear reactor in Dimona in southern Israel. Speaking on Thursday, Hezbollah chairman Hassan Nasrallah boasted that his group was capable of hitting any strategic target in the Jewish state, including the nuclear research facility in Dimona – one of Israel’s most sensitive sites.“We invite the Israeli enemy to empty not just the ammonia tanks in Haifa,” mocked the Hezbollah leader, “but also to dismantle the nuclear core in Dimona,” claiming that “it is in our power to threaten any part of Israel.”

USA - President Trump vowed to catch the "low-life leakers" working to sabotage his presidency Thursday on Twitter. "The spotlight has finally been put on the low-life leakers!" he wrote, adding "They will be caught!" As I said this morning, the deep state's take down of Michael Flynn may backfire spectacularly. Three days ago most people didn't even know what the term "deep state" meant. Yet it's managed to unite the right and honest leftists to the point where even Trump-hating Mark Levin was screaming his head off about this sabotage on his radio show yesterday. Trump also attacked the "failing New York Times" and demanded an apology, writing: "Leaking, and even illegal classified leaking, has been a big problem in Washington for years. Failing @nytimes (and others) must apologize!"

GERMANY - The embattled leader says Europe has an obligation to take displaced people from Syria and Iraq. She also said Islam “is not the cause of terrorism” and that combatting extremism needs the cooperation of Muslim countries. In a wide-ranging speech at a Munich security conference, the German chief also vowed to work closely with Vladimir Putin’s Russia in the fight with ISIS in the Middle East. Mrs Merkel has come under fire for taking in up to one million refugees amid security concerns and a string of migrant sex attacks across Germany. After the Berlin lorry attack at a Christmas market in December, ex-UKIP leader Nigel Farage said events such as that will be “Merkel’s legacy”. Mrs Merkel had been a strong critic of Brexit, saying she had “deep regrets” about it. On Putin, she said Europe’s ties with Russia remained challenging, but it was important to work with them in the fight against Islamist terrorism.