GERMANY - The ruling coalition and a major opposition party have agreed to change the constitution to beef up Berlin's defense budget. Germany’s constitution will be changed to accommodate a new special €100 billion ($107.35 billion) credit-based defense fund, the country’s Finance Minister Christian Lindner has confirmed. On Sunday, the ruling coalition – comprised of the Social Democratic Party, the Greens and the Free Democrats – engaged in talks with the leading opposition party, CDU/CSU, to secure a two-thirds majority in parliament needed to exempt the defense fund from a constitutional debt brake. According to reports in German media, it took the groups more than three hours to reach a consensus. The new fund, which will require Berlin to take out massive loans, exceeding the regular debt ceiling applied in the country, will now be enshrined in the German constitution (locally known as ‘Basic Law’) to highlight its “exceptional character,” as Finance Minister Lindner put it.

USA - Billionaire Bill Gates says there’s a 50 per cent chance the next pandemic will be caused by man-made climate change or be deliberately released by a bio-terrorist. The Microsoft founder made the comments during an interview with Spanish news outlet El Diario. Asserting that the next major pandemic is likely to occur within 20 years, Gates said, “It could be a virus made by man, by a bioterrorist who designed it and intentionally circulated it. That is a very scary scenario because they could try to spread it in different places at once.” “Or it could be something that makes the leap from the natural world. The human population is growing and we are invading more and more ecosystems. That is why I calculate that there is a 50% chance that we will have a pandemic of natural origin in the next 20 years, as a consequence of climate change,” he added. The prediction that climate change will cause a virus which will then require another global vaccine rollout is somewhat convenient for Gates given that he is heavily invested in both areas.

VATICAN - If there was any need for further evidence that Marxist, woke Pope Francis is the most radical leftist head of the Catholic Church in modern history, one only needs to look at his latest actions. Instead of embracing the righteous call made by San Francisco Archbishop Salvatore Cordileone to bar Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi from receiving communion over her baby-killing political stances, Pope Francis moved him to the back of the bus, elevating a lower-ranked bishop to cardinal instead. According to Fox News: “Pope Francis on Sunday named as cardinal San Diego Bishop Robert W McElroy, a Roman Catholic leader who had spoken out against the calls for bishops to exclude pro-choice politicians like President Biden and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi from Holy Communion over their stances on abortion.” I have long said that Pope Francis does not represent the values of the Catholic Church nor is he a proper representative of Biblical faith. He has repeatedly embraced wokeness, secular sensibilities, and equity, all the while demeaning the truth of the Bible.

USA - Bonefish off the coast of Florida have tested positive for a cocktail of pharmaceutical drugs, including anti-depressants and blood pressure medications, according to a new study. The three-year study was conducted by researchers at Florida International University and Bonefish & Tarpon Trust (BTT), a nonprofit based in Miami focused on bonefish and tarpon conservation, says a news release from the university. Bonefish are a family of fish found throughout the Atlantic and Pacific oceans, and tarpons are found in the Atlantic and Indo-Pacific oceans. Researchers took blood and tissue samples from 93 bonefish in Biscayne Bay and the Florida Keys since 2018, when the study started. They found each bonefish had an average of seven pharmaceuticals present, including blood pressure medications, antidepressants, prostate treatment medications, antibiotics and pain relievers, according to the release. One fish had a total of 17 different pharmaceuticals in its tissues.

USA - A North Carolina preschool is under fire after using LGBTQ flash cards, one of which featured a pregnant man, to teach the little kids about colors. Republican State Representative Erin Paré was emailed about the flash cards by a concerned constituent and contacted the principal at Ballentine Elementary School, part of the Wake County public school system, about the alarming email. The principal searched the classroom and located the cards, according to a statement from North Carolina Speaker of the House Tim Moore. “The principal found the stack of cards in a preschool classroom and verified with the teacher that they had been used by the teacher in the classroom to teach colors. The principal confirmed that the flash cards were not part of approved curriculum and that she was unaware that they were being used,” Moore’s statement said. “The principal immediately took possession of the cards, contacted the WCPSS area superintendent, and engaged human resources. The principal expressed appreciation for the constituent’s information via Representative Paré, as she would not have known about the flash cards otherwise.”

USA - Our administration would have us believe that Joe Biden is the leader of the free world. But he isn’t — and our relative inaction on Ukraine should firmly put to rest the idea of “American exceptionalism.” While Ukrainians were heartened by British prime minister Boris Johnson’s April trip to Kyiv, our commander-in-chief has adopted a different strategy for this active war zone: send in the women. Security concerns are ostensibly to blame for Biden being MIA, but sending in three of the country’s most important ladies — Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi to Kyiv, First Lady Jill Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris to neighboring countries in Eastern Europe — seems an odd way to demonstrate that the administration is worried about security.

USA - At a World Bank event in April, former chief economist Lord Nicholas Stern called for a global ban on the manufacture and sale of combustion engine vehicles. At COP26, a coalition of multilateral development banks signed a joint statement announcing their intentions to ‘increase the level of private capital mobilised’ to fight climate change. Activists were infuriated that it omitted divestments from funding fossil fuels. Both the World Bank and Inter-American Development Bank have faced industry pressure to stop investing in internal combustion engine vehicles by 2025. Sixty-eight percent of transport investment by the World Bank involves combustion engines. But perhaps the World Bank has not floored the accelerator on EVs yet because they recognise roadblocks keep the wheel out of reach for working families.

USA - Do you know what DEF fluid is? It's Diesel Exhaust Fluid. Every Diesel truck that has been made since 2010 is required to use it. It's a product made of 67% Urea fertilizer and 33% distilled water. Every diesel truck you see driving down the road today has to have this product to drive. The engines won't start without it. There are regulators inside the engine that mix DEF with the Diesel to reduce Diesel emissions. That's the purpose of DEF.

USA - The Walt Disney Co used its Disney+ This Is Me gay pride special last year to encourage kids to support the gay and transgender activist group GLSEN, which promotes LGBTQ awareness in kindergarten through 12th grade. Disney has come under fire recently after leaked internal videos showed company leaders openly bragging about promoting an LGBTQ agenda directed at children. The leaks came shortly after Disney declared war on Florida’s Parental Rights in Education law, which bans the teaching of sexual and gender ideology to children in kindergarten through third grade. Disney CEO Bob Chapek caved to pressure from a small group of employees who demanded the company abandon its neutral position on the Florida legislation and fully embrace LGBTQ activism.

SWITZERLAND - Speaking at Davos Annual Meeting 2022 during Equitable Responses to Ending the Pandemic on Monday, Oxfam International’s executive director Gabriela Bucher said billionaires were arriving at the summit to “celebrate an incredible surge in their fortunes.” According to a report from CNBC, Buche added, “The pandemic and now the steep increases in food and energy prices have, simply put, been a bonanza for them.” Meanwhile, decades of progress on extreme poverty are now in reverse and millions of people are facing impossible rises in the cost of simply staying alive,” Bucher said. A new billionaire emerged every 30 hours during the Covid-19 pandemic, and nearly a million could fall into extreme poverty at around the same rate in 2022. Those are the sobering statistics recently released by Oxfam.

USA - An alleged attacker with an AR-15 was shot dead in Charleston, West Virginia, Wednesday night by a woman who was carrying a pistol for self-defense. Dennis Butler was armed with an AR-15 and allegedly shot “at dozens of people attending a graduation party,” WCHSTV reported. Police indicate a woman pulled a pistol and shot Butler, killing him. Charleston Police Department Chief of Detectives Tony Hazelett said, “Instead of running from the threat, she engaged with the threat and saved several lives last night.” Butler was 37-years-old, the Washington Post noted. The woman who shot him dead waited afterward for police and was cooperative when they arrived. None of the graduation party attendees were harmed.

USA - The East Pacific's first named storm of the year - Agatha - strengthened into a hurricane Sunday morning as it closed in on the southern Mexico coastline. AccuWeather meteorologists have rated Agatha a 2 on the AccuWeather RealImpact™ Scale for Hurricanes as a result of the storm's damaging winds and significant flooding threat in Mexico. Within six hours of being designated Tropical Depression One-E by the National Hurricane Center late Friday, Tropical Storm Agatha formed early Saturday morning amid a cluster of showers and thunderstorms in the East Pacific. Winds within the center of the storm stood at 70 mph (113 km/h) at 4 am CDT Sunday, just shy of Category 1 hurricane status (maximum sustained winds of 74-95 mph, or 119-153 km/h).

USA - Senator Rand Paul appeared on Fox News Thursday and discussed the ongoing World Economic Forum gathering in Davos Switzerland, remarking that it is not a conspiracy theory to suggest the organisation is seeking a one world government, rather it is “in their mission statement.” Paul urged that “The real danger here that’s even more dangerous than all their phony caring about carbon footprint, the real danger is this; look how bad your government is in a country where you get to vote for these people.”

USA - First of all, 99% of the people who own guns — I don’t care what kinds of guns — don’t shoot other people. They don’t. So a legitimate politician who has eyes to see and is honest — there are a few — would say this: “I’m going to show you where most of the gun crimes in America are committed. I’m talking about murder, I’m talking about wounding, I’m talking about armed robberies, and I’m also talking about places where the residents live under constant daily fear of people shooting guns.” This would clear the air.

USA - Online platforms have been ramping up their censorship protocols under the banner of fighting disinformation and misinformation, and those escalations always align with narrative control agendas of the US-centralized empire. And this all comes out after US officials straight up told the press that the Biden administration has been deliberately sowing disinformation to the public using the mainstream press in order to win an infowar against the Kremlin. They’ve literally just been circulating completely baseless stories about Russia and Ukraine, but nobody seems to be calling for the social media accounts of Biden administration officials to be banned.