USA - A lot of people seem to have forgotten about the war in Ukraine. That’s a mistake. Russia is slowly but steadily defeating Ukraine, which is becoming increasingly obvious to everyone except the most anti-Russian diehards. That’s leading to desperation in elite Western circles determined to stop Russia one way or the other. In their minds, they simply can’t let Putin win. They think that if Putin wins in Ukraine, he’ll next move on to the Baltic states, Poland and elsewhere. You know the West is getting desperate based on recent threats by France’s Emmanuel Macron to send troops to Ukraine.

USA - There are more dormant office towers in the United States than at any point since 1979, according to a new report from Moody's Analytics, which began tracking office leasing vacancies that year. The rising supply of office space is due to a combination of surging remote and hybrid work that forces companies to reduce corporate footprints. Also, companies are exiting imploding progressive cities and high-taxed blue states for red ones while downsizing space. In the report, office tower vacancies rose to a record 19.8%, up from 19.6% in the fourth quarter of 2023. The high office vacancy rate continues to be terrible news for landlords and developers eager to fill their buildings, and the Fed's hiking cycle has made refinancing very challenging.

USA - After three years in which its streets became a hellscape of open drug use, rocketing fatal overdoses and rampant crime, Oregon has learnt a painful lesson. And hopefully so has everyone else who believes that the best way to deal with the menace of deadly drugs such as fentanyl and heroin is to decriminalise them. Oregon governor Tina Kotek this week reversed large parts of a controversial 2021 law known as Measure 110 and restored criminal penalties for possession of hard drugs and court-ordered treatment for offenders. From September 1, drug possession in the West Coast state will be punishable by up to six months in prison.

MIDDLE EAST - The Palestinian Authority (PA) has formally requested that it be admitted as a full-fledged member of the United Nations. The State of Palestine has held observer status at the UN since 2012, but full membership would amount to a recognition of Palestinian statehood, which Israel opposes. “Today, the State of Palestine, and upon instructions of the Palestinian leadership, sent a letter to the Secretary General requesting renewed consideration to [our] membership application,” the Palestinian Authority’s permanent envoy to the UN, Riyad Mansour, wrote in a post on X on Tuesday.

UK - Expert explains that’s why chemicals, surgery are ‘such an outrage’. In direct opposition to the suspect claims of transgender activists that children who are “gender-confused” must have medical “care” that goes up to and includes surgical body mutilations, a new 15-year study confirms that most of those kids, if left alone, “grow out of it.” A report from the Daily Mail confirms the study results show that “being trans is usually just a phase for kids.” “The results of the current study might help adolescents to realize that it is normal to have some doubts about one’s identity and one’s gender identity during this age period and that this is also relatively common,” the study found. Under the openly radical push by Joe Biden and his administration, the transgender ideology has exploded in popularity over the last few years.

USA - A human being has a right to life STARTING AT CONCEPTION AND NOT ONE MOMENT LATER. Democratic politicians and the abortion lobby are fond of saying that “the government should not be involved in abortion.” They don’t know how right they are. The government did get too “involved” with abortion the moment it presumed to be able to authorize it, emanating from the US Supreme Court’s decision in Roe v Wade, 410 US 113 (1973). According to the Declaration of Independence, governments exist to secure the right to life, not to take it away. The position of anti-abortion advocates, consistent with that Founding American document, is that government does not have the authority to permit the ending of a baby’s life.

USA - US Intelligence officials have branded Israel's strike on the Iranian consulate in Syria as "reckless" and fear a wider war in the Middle East. The CIA has warned Israel that Iran will attack the country in the next 48 hours, it has been reported. Israel killed two Iranian military commanders with a strike on Tehran's consulate in the Syrian capital Damascus this week. Iran vowed that it would take revenge for the attack, and now foreign media is reporting that US intelligence is fearful of an attack on Israel. Tehran is said to be planning a combined attack with a "rain" of drones and missiles fired from its bases at strategic locations inside Israel, according to Al Mayadeen. This comes after US officials raised fears that the Israeli strike could lead to a wider war in the Middle East.

UK - The call came through as I was leaving Twickenham after an England rugby international in March 2003. My old friend Terry Lloyd, the brilliant ITN correspondent, had been killed in Iraq. He was on the outskirts of Basra, travelling in a 4x4 clearly marked 'TV'. When the fog of war lifted, it was determined that the fatal shot had been fired by a US soldier, who has never been identified. Terry's translator also died and his French cameraman was missing, presumed dead. A subsequent inquest ruled that Terry had been unlawfully killed by American troops and his lawyer said he had been the victim of a 'very serious war crime'. No one was ever charged.

PHILIPPINES - The Philippines said it is "studying all options" in preparation for a potential intensification of clashes with China after months of growing pressure in the South China Sea. The Philippines, a leading US ally in the Indo-Pacific, confirmed its navy is now preparing for the "worst-case scenario" amid growing tensions with China over control of the disputed South China Sea. Both nations claim partial or overall sovereignty over the body of water, and Beijing has repeatedly targeted Philippine vessels in recent months to assert its dominance in the region. President Ferdinand Marcos Jr has been urged to focus on diplomacy to avoid the dispute erupting into a direct confrontation but a top official confirmed Manila is now considering several "options" to push back on Beijing's hostility.

UK - The UK is facing renewed calls to stop exporting arms to Israel, following the deadly bombing by the country’s military of a humanitarian convoy in Gaza, media outlets are reporting. On Monday, seven World Central Kitchen (WCK) aid workers, mostly foreigners and including three British nationals, were killed by Israeli airstrikes that were purportedly targeting a Hamas militant. The incident has sparked international condemnation. Peter Ricketts, former national security adviser to then-Prime Minister, now-Foreign Secretary David Cameron, stated on Wednesday in comments on the incident that Britain had now “reached that point.” He urged the UK to send a “signal” to Israel that it has not been taking its obligations under international law seriously enough.

USA - NASA is ready to launch three sounding rockets during the rare celestial event of a total solar eclipse on April 8, 2024. The mission aims to shed light on how the Earth’s upper atmosphere reacts to the sudden and temporary absence of sunlight. The Atmospheric Perturbations around Eclipse Path (APEP) mission will see its sounding rockets ascend from NASA’s Wallops Flight Facility in Virginia, targeting the ionosphere, a layer of Earth’s atmosphere that becomes notably disturbed when the Moon’s shadow eclipses the Sun.

USA - Recently, it came to light that US courts are issuing orders to YouTube (Google) to hand over user information – a previously unreported form of dragnet investigation. And now additional details about the practice are emerging. Forbes broke the story last month after seeing documents that showed a court order covering all YouTube users who watched certain videos over a period of time. Personal data required by law enforcement in these cases was very detailed. Regarding Google users – that’s information from their Google accounts (name, address, phone number and records, online payments history, IP address, etc…), while everybody else visiting URLs listed in the order had their IP addresses surrendered. A one-year gag order made sure Google could not make any of this publicly known, and now we’re hearing about it because that time period has expired.

ZIMBABWE - Zimbabwe has declared a national disaster over a drought caused by the climate event known as El Niño and President Emmerson Mnangagwa has said the country needs $2 billion in aid to help millions of people who are going hungry. The severe dry spell is wreaking havoc across southern Africa. “No Zimbabwean must succumb or die from hunger,” Mnangagwa told a press conference. “To that end, I do hereby declare a nationwide state of disaster, due to the El Niño-induced drought.” Due to poor rains, more than 2.7 million people will not have enough food to put on the table this year, he warned. This season’s grain harvest was expected to bring in just over half of the cereals needed to feed the nation, he said. The naturally occurring El Niño climate pattern, which emerged in mid-2023, usually increases global temperatures for a year afterwards. It is currently fuelling fires and record heat across the world. In southern Africa, Zimbabwe is the third country to declare drought a national disaster after Malawi and Zambia.

JAPAN - A 7.4-magnitude earthquake hit eastern Japan late Wednesday night, killing at least four people and injuring over 100 others, and cutting power to millions of homes. The quake was originally designated 7.3-magnitude, but was upgraded to 7.4 on Thursday. A bullet train derailed near Fukushima as a result of the earthquake but no injuries were reported, Kishida said at a press conference. According to public broadcaster NHK, 78 people were trapped for four hours after the high-speed train derailed, but escaped uninjured through an emergency exit. The Meteorological Agency on Thursday urged the public to watch out for more seismic activity in the next few days.

USA - "A massive white altar awaits, where they are to be burned on a plot of land overlooking the Mount of Olives in Jerusalem. Mamo said the ceremony must be performed looking directly into where the ancient Second Temple stood, until it was destroyed by the Romans in the year 70." Unfortunately, that CBS News story was not accurate. The video also featured a large white structure. The voiceover stated, “A massive altar already awaits, where the heifers are to be burned.”