MIDDLE EAST - What we are witnessing in east Africa and across much of the Middle East right now is hard to believe. 360 billion locusts are eating everything in sight, and UN officials are warning that this plague of “Biblical proportions” could get many times worse over the next several months. Desert locusts can travel up to 93 miles a day, and each adult can consume the equivalent of its own weight in food every 24 hours. These voracious little creatures are traveling in absolutely colossal swarms that are up to 40 miles wide, and they continue to push into new areas. If urgent action is not taken on a massive scale, millions upon millions of people could soon have next to nothing to eat.

GERMANY - Germany now generates over 35 percent of its yearly electricity consumption from wind and solar sources. Over 30 000 wind turbines have been built, with a total installed capacity of nearly 60 GW. Germany now has approximately 1.7 million solar power (photovoltaic) installations, with an installed capacity of 46 GW. This looks very impressive.

CHINA - As The World Health Organisation (WHO) declares a global health emergency and authorities work to prevent coronavirus from spreading any further, China is now dealing with another crisis - a bird flu outbreak. Chinese officials have reported an outbreak of H5N1 bird flu in Hunan province, which borders Hubei, where the epicentre of the coronavirus outbreak is located. China’s Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs said that the outbreak was first reported on a farm that is home to nearly 8,000 chickens. So far, around 4,500 chickens at the farm have died from bird flu. Others have been culled to prevent the disease from spreading. Bird flu has 25 different subtypes, and only those labelled H5, H7 and H10 have caused deaths in humans. Bird Flu is a viral infection that can affect birds and humans. According to health authorities, bird flu has an estimated fatality rate of 60 percent.

NIGERIA - The president of the Nigerian bishops’ conference has launched an appeal to the West to “make known the atrocities” being suffered by Christians throughout the country. Nigeria is living in an unprecedented climate of insecurity not seen since the civil war of 1967-1970, which is particularly affecting Christians, said the President of the Bishops’ Conference, Augustine Obiora Akubeze, Archbishop of Benin City. While “in the past security problems were limited to the north-east of Nigeria, now there is insecurity throughout the whole country,” the archbishop said in an interview with the papal foundation Aid to the Church in Need (ACN). In the face of this “serious lack of security and the increase in anti-Christian attacks,” the prelate called on Western governments and media to “make known the atrocities” taking place in Nigeria.

USA - America is addicted to licensing. It sounds dramatic, but it’s true. Consider this recent incident out of Chicago: shocked by the death of an infant boy in his ward, who prosecutors say was murdered by his father, Chicago Alderman Ray Lopez took to Twitter in January to express his outrage. He said he was tired of seeing tragic stories like this and had a plan to end them. “Time to start requiring childbirth licensing, conception fees or toddler escrows in order to be a parent,” the alderman tweeted. “If love doesn’t motivate good behavior, perhaps hitting their pockets will.” For many Americans, the idea is shocking — and rightly so. But given the uptick in licensing and how deeply it has become ingrained in our culture, it may not be that far-fetched.

CHINA - The Chinese government on Monday accused the US of spreading “panic” over the coronavirus outbreak by pulling its citizens out of the country and restricting travel instead of offering significant assistance. The US was the first country to begin evacuations, issued a travel warning against going to China, and from Sunday barred entry to foreigners recently in China. Washington has “unceasingly manufactured and spread panic,” Chinese Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying said, noting that the World Health Organization had advised against trade and travel restrictions, according to Reuters. Trump said this weekend that the US had “shut down” the coronavirus threat. “We can’t have thousands of people coming in who may have this problem,” he said on Fox. Meanwhile, the World Health Organization said Monday it was working around the clock with internet and social media giants to fight widespread misinformation about the outbreak.

GERMANY - Angela Merkel and other German politicians said they regretted Brexit. But the Chancellor made clear, Germany wanted to remain the UK’s friend. German Chancellor Angela Merkel said Brexit was a “deep cut for all of us”. She wanted the European Union “to continue to have a close relationship” with the United Kingdom, she stated in her podcast. Germany wanted to remain a close partner and friend of Great Britain too, “because we share common values”. Merkel said she believed “even after Britain’s exit, Europe should continue to move forward. The 27 member states of the EU will do everything they can to successfully develop Europe.” In a transition phase until the end of the year, London and Brussels would still negotiate further political relations. “Intensive negotiations are necessary”, Merkel stressed. “The European Union goes into these negotiations with good courage, but also with the representation of its own interests,” the Chancellor said. Much would also depend on Great Britain.

USA - Throughout history we have seen nations under the duress of economic constraints use war as a tool of breaking out of their bondage and the confiscation of the resources of other nations the motivating factor! China is definitely on this path just as Russia, North Korea, Iran and China! All of their economies, as they see it, are being obstructed by America's fiscal influence! There will come a time when the temptation to militarily intervene will be inescapable!

USA - All cities have their seedy sides. But this is the very centre of San Francisco, by an upmarket Westfield shopping mall thronged with people in designer clothes perusing Rolex watches, Louis Vuitton handbags and Tiffany jewellery. The beautiful city by the bay, where Tony Bennett famously left his heart and which poses as a beacon of progressiveness, has more billionaires per capita than any other on the planet. The city authorities have a huge $12 billion budget, handing their 31,800 staff average annual pay and benefit packages of an astonishing $175,000. Yet the tide of homeless, addicted and mentally ill people washing up here has become so severe that a global expert on slums claimed San Francisco may be more unsanitary than some of the poorest parts of Africa and Asia.

USA - Dr Lawrence Palevsky is a pediatrician trained at NYU School of Medicine, and did his residency at Mount Sinai Hospital in New York. He recently spoke at a forum on vaccines in Connecticut, discussing the repeal of the religious exemption for childhood vaccines. Dr Palevsky spent the first nine years of his career working in emergency rooms running a neonatal intensive care unit. Once he began his private practice, he began to hear: ...not dozens, not hundreds, but thousands of stories from parents who took a very healthy child into their doctor’s office, and then found that their child lost much of their health.

Coronavirus

Australian wildfires

Iran belligerence and plane crash

Caribbean earthquakes

Volcano eruptions

Jakarta flood

President Trump's impeachment trial

Kobe dies in helicopter crash

What’s in store for the next 11 months, 2020?

CHINA - Sometimes we overlook the obvious because we don’t like the implications. Right now, China is being hit with plague after plague. The epicenter for the worst coronavirus outbreak in modern human history is in China, the worst African Swine Fever pandemic ever recorded has wiped out “about two-thirds of China’s swine herd”, and now an outbreak of H5N1 bird flu threatens to decimate Chinese chicken production. The attention of the entire planet is now keenly focused on China, and it appears that things are only going to get worse in the months ahead.

UK - Britain has ushered in a new chapter outside the European Union as Brexit was at last delivered, drawing a line under 47 years of membership. On the stroke of 11pm last night, the UK officially divorced from the bloc after three years of bitter political struggle that split families and paralysed Westminster. Jubilant Brexiteers heralded the moment with celebrations across the country, including a flagship bash in London's Parliament Square headlined by Nigel Farage. The EU and UK will use the standstill period over the next 11 months to try to hammer out the terms of their future relationship.

UK - While Britain’s exit is a historic moment, it only marks the end of the first stage of the Brexit saga. When Britons wake up on Saturday, they will notice very little change. The UK and the EU have given themselves an 11-month “transition period” — in which the UK will continue to follow the bloc’s rules — to strike new agreements on trade, security and a host of other areas. Britain’s journey to Brexit has been long, rocky — and far from over.

UK - The EU is not perfect, far from it. But to think that the UK will get a better deal with EU member states and other leading competitors is delusional. How attractive to outside investors is a country that is haemorrhaging key industries and services as a result of Brexit? It doesn't take rocket science to figure out why leading carmakers are shutting plants and moving to mainland Europe, or why key financial operators are moving to Paris and Amsterdam. Not to mention the brain drain when EU nationals who have been working in science and education pack their bags and leave. Brexit will leave Britain broken, a disunited kingdom. Geographically it has always been removed from continental Europe. That distance will become increasingly palpable politically, economically and socially. I may not be around to see it (a mixed blessing, in a way), but I predict that within the next 20 years, the UK will come begging with its tail between its legs to rejoin the EU — but the terms then will be infinitely worse than those it enjoyed for so long.