MIDDLE EAST - Most disturbing is what a growing number of Arabs are trying to warn the Biden administration about: that striking a new deal with Iran would not only embolden Iran and its terrorist proxies and endanger America's friends in the Middle East, but create calamitous turmoil, including a nuclear arms race "on steroids" in the region - all of which would justifiably be blamed on the Biden administration. It appears that the Biden administration has chosen to ignore the likelihood of this terrifying scenario. It is a decision that is causing irreparable damage to America's credibility in the Middle East.

YEMEN - “We’re brutally bombed every day. So why doesn’t the Western world care like it does about Ukraine?!! …Is it because we don’t have blonde hair and blue eyes like Ukrainians?” Ahmed Tamri, a Yemeni father of four, asked with furrowed brows about the outpouring of international support and media coverage of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and the lack of such a reaction to the war in Yemen. Over the weekend, a member of Tamri’s family was killed and nine relatives injured when their family home was targeted in a Saudi-led Coalition airstrike in the remote al-Saqf area in Hajjah Governorate. Tamri claims that al-Saqf has been subjected to a brutal Saudi bombing campaign for the past seven years – more so, he says, than all of Ukraine has endured since it was invaded by Russia. Despite the horrific bombing campaign against Yemeni civilians, Saudi Arabia’s human rights violations and war crimes have garnered nowhere near the level of coverage and sympathy that the mainstream Western media has rightfully given to Ukraine. “They shed tears for the Ukrainians, and ignore our tragedies… What hypocrisy and racism!” Tamri told MintPress News.

USA - Shoplifters were caught on cellphone video brazenly stealing items off shelves at a Walgreens as daytime customers — and a uniformed security guard — simply watched. Libs of Tik Tok posted the clip to Twitter on Sunday and indicated the Walgreens in question is located in California's Bay Area. Soon a security guard pops into the frame, but she does not approach the crew and instead stands at the end of the aisle, looking on. Someone — perhaps the security guard —apparently calls for help and requests, "I need an officer right now." Undeterred, the crooks head to other aisles and add to the number of items in their bags as they rifle through shelves. In fact, one of the shoplifters is seen heading for the Walgreens' exit — but at the last second she decides to turn around and head to another shelf and add to her loot.

GERMANY - Germany Goes Big on Defense Spending. The memo provides a list of projects into which the money is to be invested. Around 34 billion euros would have to be invested in the following multinational defense projects:

GERMANY - Within a week, Germany has undergone a dramatic transformation, shedding its reluctant and dovish foreign policy and committing itself to drastically increase defense spending. The shock of Russian President Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine spurred Berlin to send thousands of antitank and antiaircraft weapons to Kyiv. A country that has been criticized by its allies for doing too little, too late has jumped to the front of the pack to take on a leadership role in European security. As Finance Minister Lindner added Tuesday night, Germany will aim to turn its military “into one of the most capable, powerful and best equipped armed forces on the continent,” a statement that would have earned him the label of “warmonger” only days earlier.

GERMANY - Harry Nedelcu, policy director at Rasmussen Global, told Al Jazeera the sudden shift in Germany’s defence policy occurred because of the severity of the crisis in Ukraine. “In his 45-minute bizarre televised rant trying to justify his actions, Putin blamed anyone from the Ottoman Empire to [the first Soviet leader Vladimir] Lenin. So perhaps it’s fitting here to actually quote Lenin, who wrote: ‘There are decades when nothing happens; and there are weeks when decades happen,'” Nedelcu said. This war has been such a big shift for European security that it has awakened the German government to “make a complete U-turn in its foreign and security policy and break with its traditionally cautious position within a week”, he told Al Jazeera.

ITALY - “Today’s threat from Russia is an incentive to invest more in defense than we have ever done before. We can choose whether to do this at a national or European level. My hope is that all countries will increasingly choose to adopt a common approach,” he said. The decisions by two of Europe’s biggest powers, both with a longstanding aversion to military spending were unimaginable at the start of last week. Both had pursued friendly relations with the Kremlin and had been criticized by allies for excessive dovishness. The extraordinary turnaround only underlined the gravity of the unfolding crisis in Eastern Europe.

CANADA - As Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau pulled out all the stops to quash the trucker protest against vaccine mandates, it became clear that democracy has been an illusion. For many years, the technocratic elite, with their global authoritarianism goals, have infiltrated governments around the world and pushed for surveillance and national security tools intended to suppress dissent. A key part of that dissent-crushing system is the surveillance apparatus that has been erected. While sold as a tool to hunt down dangerous criminals, its primary purpose is to stifle dissent among peaceful, law-abiding citizens. Financial warfare — banning people from using financial services — is another. Dissent is also stifled by applying criminal terms to those who disagree with the narrative. Case in point: “Anti-vaxxers” and anyone who disagrees with pandemic measures are now labeled domestic terrorists or domestic extremists. Using terms of criminality allows those in power to justify the use of unconstitutional repression and punishment.

USA - The World Economic Forum has a new wish to control EVERYTHING in your life: a digital ID system that would collect personal data about your online behavior, purchase history, network usage, medical history, travel history, energy uses, health stats… AND MORE! They’d then use this data to determine who should open bank accounts, conduct financial transactions, access insurance & treatment, book trips, cross borders… AND MORE! Glenn urges listeners to stop believing that terrifying proposals like this one are beyond the realm of possibilities. Look at what’s happened in the last few months alone, Glenn says. "NOTHING is beyond the realm of possibilities anymore."

GERMANY - Late last year, when Angela Merkel was still German chancellor, I asked one of the most astute foreign-policy thinkers in her government about the country’s worrying dependence on authoritarian powers and the reluctance of its political class to reconsider these relationships. At the time, Berlin was poised to inaugurate a new gas pipeline from Russia, and Germany’s biggest companies were announcing major new investments in China. But Merkel was on her way out, and the question on many minds was whether a leadership change might bring about a shift in Germany’s approach. The German official was skeptical.

UKRAINE - Ukraine has earned the nickname "breadbasket of Europe" for its rich dark soil, vast wheat fields, and other farm goods. The Russian invasion has cut off the world from cheap and abundant wheat supplies. Ukraine and Russia are vital to the global food supply, accounting for more than a quarter of global wheat trade, about a fifth of corn, and 12% of all calories traded globally, according to Bloomberg. Reuters reports Ukrainian ports will remain closed until the Russian invasion ends and maritime security is restored for commercial ships. This means all shipments of farm goods from Ukraine have ceased, and commodity traders will have to search elsewhere. "If the conflict is prolonged - three months, four months from now - I feel the consequences could be really serious," Andree Defois, president of consultant Strategie Grains, told Bloomberg. "Wheat will need to be rationed." The disruption comes as global food prices are already nearing record-highs and could soon be catapulted into unknown territory.

USA - Russian products are going, going, gone as stores and bars are being urged to rid themselves of anything to do with what to many Americans believe is the foul taste of the nation that invaded Ukraine. Republican Senator Tom Cotton of Arkansas called for both substantive and symbolic actions against Russia. “Joe Biden needs to reverse his energy policy and ban on drilling on federal lands and start certifying pipelines to get oil and gas flowing again in America. These are the steps we need to take that are full measures that recognize the full gravity of this moment, as opposed to the half measures that we’ve heard this week from President Biden and NATO,” Cotton said last week, according to Fox News.

GERMANY - Germany scrapped compulsory military service just over 10 years ago, but the conflict in Ukraine has reignited the debate around whether young men and women should be required to fight for their country. Conscription was introduced in Germany in 1956 with men over 18 expected to serve in the army for a year, though they could claim exemption due to moral objections. The practice was gradually wound down and finally scrapped in 2011 as part of moves to save money, and in line with Germany's traditionally cautious approach to defence as a result of its post-war guilt. But Russia's invasion of Ukraine last week has led to a wholesale shift in Germany's approach to its armed forces, known as the Bundeswehr, and led to renewed calls for some form of military service. Wolfgang Hellmich, a politician for Chancellor Olaf Scholz's centre-left Social Democrats (SPD), called for an "urgent" debate on the issue in an interview with the Rheinische Post newspaper on Tuesday. Compulsory military service would help "promote public spirit", he said, also calling for careers in the Bundeswehr to be made more attractive to young people.

EUROPE - Just last week, many European countries were still so somnolent about the threat Russia posed to Ukraine that Germany’s spy chief was caught unawares in Kyiv when the Kremlin invasion started. He had to be extracted in a special operation. But over just a handful of days, Europe has been shocked out of a post-Cold War era — and state of mind — in which it left many of the democratic world’s most burning security problems to the United States. The continent has in some ways leapfrogged the United States, which — though many policymakers credit the Biden administration for helping to coordinate — wasn’t prepared for the speed of the European change. And it has been dizzying for some of the continent’s Russia hawks, especially those in Eastern Europe who campaigned for tougher measures against the Kremlin for years but were ignored by bigger countries including Germany, Italy and France.

GERMANY - Scholz’s move toward rearmament is a dramatic turnaround for Germany. As NATO members poured weapons into Ukraine in recent weeks, Berlin banned the sale of arms to Kiev, with its reluctance to intervene likely a result of its dependence on Russian gas imports. However, that ban was lifted on Saturday, as Germany also dropped its opposition to cutting some Russian banks off from the SWIFT banking network. Germany’s armed forces have long been in need of modernization. A 2019 report revealed that fewer than 20% of the country’s 68 Tiger combat helicopters and fewer than 30% of its 136 Eurofighter jets were operational in 2018. The report also found that ammunition stocks were low and soldiers were missing essential gear, including boots, clothing, and bedding. Compounding the dysfunction, the German military regularly has to purge itself of extremism within its ranks. In addition to sanctioning individual soldiers involved in extremism, the military in 2020 disbanded an entire wing of the special forces after an investigation found its members were stockpiling ammunition and performing Nazi salutes.