UK - Over 1,000 victims have been identified in an investigation into child sex abuse grooming gangs that operated in the northern English town of Rotherham, Britain’s National Crime Agency (NCA) revealed this week. The NCA — which roughly equates to the FBI in the United States — announced on Thursday that it has launched an appeal for grooming gang victims in Rotherham to come forward in relation to Operation Stovewood. The investigation, which is the largest of its kind in the UK, was launched in response to child sexual abuse gangs targeting young girls in the area in the 1990s and 2000s. So far, 20 men have been convicted for their involvement in grooming gang crimes, however, law enforcement officials believe that many more perpetrators may still be free. The NCA said that there are currently 30 investigations ongoing, with over 1,000 victims known to the police. More charges against suspected paedophiles are expected to be brought forward later this year and the probe is expected to last another five years.

USA - Building Back Worse: The stock market is off to a dismal start this year — in fact, it’s the worst ever for the S&P 500. Axios reported that as of the end of trading on Tuesday, that index had declined 8.6 so far in 2022 — the biggest drop to start a year in the history of the S&P 500 going back to 1929, according to Ned Davis Research. The previous worst start was 8.57 percent in 2009, during the Great Recession under President Barack Obama.

USA - This was supposed to be the year that things “got back to normal”, but here we are at the end of January and things have only gotten worse. As we move forward into February and beyond, there are two key global shortages that we are going to want to keep a very close eye on. One of them is the rapidly growing fertilizer shortage. A few days ago, the Wall Street Journal ominously warned that “high fertilizer prices are weighing on farmers across the developing world”… That means that a lot less food is going to be grown. The other major shortage that I want to highlight in this article is the ongoing computer chip shortage. According to a report that was just put out by the Department of Commerce, chip inventories around the nation have become dangerously thin… At this point, computer chips used to produce automobiles and medical devices are particularly in short supply. In a blog post, Commerce Secretary Gina Raimando explained that a lack of chips resulted in “$210 billion in lost revenue” for automakers in 2021… So what is going to happen to our economy if China invades Taiwan and our main supply of computer chips gets completely cut off? How in the world will we even be able to function as a society?

EUROPE - There’s nothing like a crisis to expose the fact that the European Union is incapable of speaking with one voice. I suppose, in some ways, this is to be expected, as it is a bloc made up of 27 countries, all with their own different histories and national interests. This is why I have always maintained that, in the long run, it is doomed to fail. The drama taking place on the Ukrainian border has brought these differences out into the open and revealed that the EU is a toothless tiger. It can issue statements and put on flashy shows of unity, but in reality – on this issue, at least – it has lost control of its member states. For starters, the EU cannot even agree on who should be conducting the negotiations with Russia. Some seem perfectly happy to allow the United States to take the lead, while others are eager for the EU to muscle its way in and make a statement on the international stage. There is also a difference of opinion when it comes to sending weapons to Ukraine. Some EU member states are in favour, while others are opposed, and Brussels is proving itself powerless.

RUSSIA - Kazem Jalali described Russia as a major power with huge economic, defense, military and technological potential. A possible coalition of Iran, Russia and China would be very painful for the West, Iranian Ambassador to Russia Kazem Jalali told reporters during his working visit to Russia’s North Caucasus region of North Ossetia. "Naturally, the United States and the West in general are concerned about new coalitions, which are currently [being created] on the international arena. A coalition of the Islamic Republic of Iran, the Russian Federation and the People’s Republic of China is an example of such strategic coalitions," the ambassador said on Monday.

UNITED NATIONS - Be afraid. Be very afraid. Technocrat scientists want you to know when the end will come. Welcome to the Club of Rome, where the author is an official advisor. The original study in 1974 was commissioned by the Club of Rome in an attempt to panic people into following their crazy environmental policies. Herrington, a Dutch sustainability researcher and adviser to the Club of Rome, a Swiss thinktank, has made headlines in recent days after she authored a report that appeared to show a controversial 1970s study predicting the collapse of civilization was – apparently – right on time. Coming amid a cascade of alarming environmental events, from western US and Siberian wildfires to German floods and a report that suggests the Amazon rainforest may no longer be able to perform as a carbon sink, Herrington’s work predicted the collapse could come around 2040 if current trends held.

CANADA - Quebec's new insane vaccine passport scheme banning the unvaccinated from big-box stores like Walmart and Costco provides exceptions only for "groceries and pharmacies," though you'll apparently need to be escorted around by an employee to make certain you're not buying anything else, at least for the pharmacies. This CBC newsreader said the policy requires the unvaxxed to be followed around while buying groceries or medicines "to make sure they do not go and buy other products or other items that might be in the store." "Some people are scared, some people are reluctant for other reasons, so sometimes they need a little push to get their vaccines," Dr Karl Weiss, Chief of Infectious Diseases at Jewish General Hospital, told the CBC, endorsing the scheme. The leftists running Walmart, who endorsed the Black Lives Matter movement during the Floyd riots of 2020 and championed their stance against "discrimination," are happily going along with the government's plan to discriminate against the unvaxxed to "ensure a safe and efficient customer experience."

DENMARK - Denmark Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen announced on January 26 Denmark would be throwing out most of the COVID-19 pandemic restrictions it placed, including mask mandates. Restrictions currently in place are for the public to wear masks on public transportations, in restaurants, in shops, and people entering healthcare facilities and retirement homes, according to the Associated Press. However, following the February 1 change of restrictions, masks will only be required in hospitals, healthcare facilities and homes for the elderly. "We say goodbye to the restrictions and welcome the life we knew before," Frederiksen said. "As of February 1, Denmark will be open."

USA - The numbers: The US trade deficit in goods topped $1 trillion in 2021 for the first time ever, as an economic recovery enabled Americans to snap up a record amount of imports such as toys, cell phones and appliances. For all of 2021, the trade gap in goods rose to $1.08 trillion from $893.5 billion in the prior year. The deficit in 2020 had also been a record high. The deficit in goods increased 3% in December to $101 billion from $98 billion, according to an advanced government estimate. It was the biggest monthly increase on record. Big picture: The speedy rebound in the US economy compared to most other countries — fueled by massive government stimulus — helps explain the record trade deficit. Americans could afford to buy more foreign-made goods, and they did.

USA - When President Joe Biden was sworn in on January 20, 2021, the federal government's debt stood at $27,751,896,236,414.77. When his first year in office ended on January 20, 2022, it stood at $29,867,021,509,573.92. That means that during Biden's first 12 months in office, the federal debt grew by more than $2 trillion — or $2,115,125,273,159.15 to be exact. How do you put that in perspective? The United States of America had existed for 210 years — and 40 presidents had served as this nation's chief executive — before the debt first topped $2 trillion in 1986.

USA - President Joe Biden’s press conference last week was atrocious, but one of his worst missteps amounted to telling the truth about Germany, if not by name. Biden said there’d be divisions within NATO over a “minor incursion” by Russia into Ukraine. This is true enough, and the chief cause would be a Germany that is staking a strong claim to being our worst European ally. If NATO is hollowed out over time, Germany will have much to do with it. The country is too guilt-wracked over its enormities in World War II to contribute rigorously to the defense of the West, and too cynical to allow anything to interfere with its selfish interests, both in Russian energy and the Chinese export market. It is attempting a kind of de facto economic alliance with the revisionist autocratic powers, China and Russia, at the same time it is allied politically with the foremost defender of the democratic West, the United States. No one buys more gas from Russia, where Germany now gets more than half of its supply. It is Germany, the laggard of NATO with a deep and growing conflict of interest regarding Russia, that is the weak link — and Putin, unfortunately, knows it.

FINLAND - Have you ever posted a Bible verse on social media? In Finland, this could land you in jail. The Finnish criminal code holds that if a person is found to have expressed an “opinion” or “another message” deemed to have “threatened, defamed, or insulted” someone, that person could face imprisonment for up to two years. That’s serious jail time for nothing more than a perceived insult.

USA - Tens of thousands of Americans descended on Washington DC, on Friday for the 2022 March for Life with renewed optimism amidst what many people hope are the waning days of Roe vs Wade as we know it. According to The New York Times, the march was largely centered around December oral arguments from conservative justices on the US Supreme Court that signaled a willingness to uphold a Mississippi law banning abortion after 15 weeks. The Times reported “several” of the six conservative justices on the court seemed willing to not only uphold that law, but also overturn the Roe vs Wade decision that requires states to provide abortion access until the fetus is capable of living outside the womb. “We are hoping and praying that this year, 2022, will bring a historic change for life,” March for Life Defense and Education Fund president Jeanne Mancini said, according to the Times. The weekend’s events were a powerful message to the pro-abortion crowd that their lies are being exposed, and the pro-life generation will not be silenced.

USA - The US Department of Homeland Security claims that American “extremists” have designed concrete plans to attack the nation’s power grid in hopes of paralyzing the government and stirring unrest. AP obtained a report from the Department of Homeland Security’s Office of Intelligence and Analysis which claimed extremists in the country had “developed credible, specific plans to attack electricity infrastructure since at least 2020.” Extremists allegedly belonging to “a range of ideologies” will “likely continue to plot and encourage physical attacks against electrical infrastructure” based partially on the idea that “disrupting the electrical supply will disrupt the ability of government to operate,” the report said. The “extremists” also allegedly believe that “by conducting attacks against the communications and electrical infrastructure,” they “will actually accelerate the coming civil war that they anticipate because [the attack] will disrupt the lives of so many people that they will lose faith in government.”

USA - The combat system for the Navy’s newest and costliest warship, the US$13 billion Gerald R Ford, “has yet to demonstrate that it can effectively” defend the aircraft carrier from anti-ship missiles and other threats, according to a new assessment by the Pentagon’s testing office. Mixed performance by missile interceptors, radar and data dissemination systems on a testing vessel limited the ability to destroy replicas of incoming weapons even though sensor systems “satisfactorily detected, tracked and engaged the targets,” according to the report obtained by Bloomberg News in advance of its release.