GERMANY - In the context of a ‘powder-keg Europe’ where all they’ve done for years now is worry and plan to fight the bogeyman Russians, it is shocking to see how German governments have allowed their armed forces to sink to such a sorry state. It arises now that the Bundeswehr (German army) is currently in the process of equipping and training its 10th Armored Division to be the first division geared for full operational readiness. You read it right: in Germany, right now, at most ‘part of a division’ would be ready for combat in the event of a military conflict. After the Cold War, the German army shrank dramatically. The Bundeswehr has a little more than 300 tanks – but only about 100 of them are operational. Compare this to 4,000 tanks back in 1992 and as many as 2,400 in 2004.

UK - The OBR [Office for Budget Responsibility] and Rachel Reeves [UK Chancellor] have begun talking again. The March 26 Spring Statement looms, but the overall picture is already clear: once again there isn’t any money. The Chancellor’s gargantuan tax-and-spend Budget of just three months ago, supposedly the last in a generation, is already out of date. The planned “headroom”, that is, the £9 billion gap between what the fiscal rules say can be spent and what actually will be, has already vanished in a puff of smoke. Indeed we learn there may now be an “overspend” of up to £20 billion.

UK - Ed Miliband appeared to be faltering on his climate convictions after he dropped his opposition to building a third runway at Heathrow Airport. The Energy Security and Net Zero Secretary threatened to resign over expansion of the airport in 2009 and voted against the plan in 2018. But he said this morning “I do support what the Government is doing” and that he would “abide by collective responsibility” on the issue. He also stayed silent on the future of the Rosebank oil project despite having previously described it in 2023 as “climate vandalism”.

UK - In the last few days we’ve had a perfect example of how our laws are written to be, and correctly interpreted by judges as, two-tier, meaning that they are laws intended to offer different levels of protection and punishment to different groups of UK residents, depending on their faith or ethnic origin. Martin Frost of Manchester chose (ill-advisedly, I might add) to burn a copy of the Koran in public, live streaming the event, in response to his daughter’s death at the hands of Hamas terrorists on October 7, 2023. He claimed also to have been protesting at the murder of Iraqi asylum seeker Salwan Momika who was murdered in his apartment in Stockholm after he performed his own act of Koran burning for his internet audience.

FRANCE - French President Emmanuel Macron has announced that France will double its defense budget in the near future and urged fellow EU leaders to also boost military spending. This comes amid US pressure on NATO member states to increase contributions to collective security. Speaking to journalists on Monday following an informal meeting of EU leaders in Brussels on European defense, Macron emphasized the need for a stronger and more autonomous Europe. NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte, who also participated in the Brussels meeting, welcomed the EU’s efforts to strengthen defense, emphasizing the importance of the NATO-EU partnership. Rutte has consistently called on members of the US-led military bloc to adopt a “wartime mindset” and significantly increase defense spending. Trump previously floated the idea of raising NATO members’ defense spending target to 5% of GDP, though no member – including the US – currently meets that threshold.

USA - President Donald Trump on Tuesday ordered an end to US engagement with the United Nations Human Rights Council and continued a halt to funding for the UN Palestinian relief agency UNRWA. The move coincides with a visit to Washington by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who has long been critical of UNRWA, accusing it of anti-Israel incitement and its staff of being "involved in terrorist activities against Israel." During Trump's first term in office, from 2017-2021, he also cut off funding for UNRWA, questioning its value, saying that Palestinians needed to agree to renew peace talks with Israel, and calling for unspecified reforms. Since taking office for a second term on January 20, Trump has ordered that the US withdraw from the World Health Organization and from the Paris climate agreement – also steps he took during his first term in office.

MIDDLE EAST - Donald Trump’s plans for the US to assume control of Gaza have been met with anger across the Arab world, and raised fears of reigniting conflict in the region. Saudi Arabia, considered Trump’s closest ally in the oil-rich Gulf region, was quick to denounce the US president’s plans after he announced on Tuesday evening that Washington should “take over” the devastated Gaza Strip and that its 2.2 million-strong Palestinian population should be resettled. Other US allies in the Middle East and Europe also rejected the plan for Gaza, swaths of which are in ruins after more than a year of war between Israel and Hamas, while Palestinian leaders said they would defy any attempts to remove them from their land. Saudi Arabia’s foreign ministry said on Wednesday that the country would “not establish diplomatic relations with Israel” without an independent Palestinian state, adding that its position was “non-negotiable and not subject to compromises”.

USA - Demonstrators gathered in cities across the US on Wednesday to protest the Trump administration’s early actions, decrying everything from the president’s immigration crackdown to his rollback of transgender rights and a proposal to forcibly transfer Palestinians from the Gaza Strip. Protesters in Philadelphia and at state capitols in California, Minnesota, Michigan, Texas, Wisconsin, Indiana and beyond waved signs denouncing President Donald Trump; billionaire Elon Musk, the leader of Trump’s new Department of Government Efficiency; and Project 2025, a hard-right playbook for American government and society. Trump has signed a series of executive orders in the first couple of weeks of his new term on everything from trade and immigration to climate change. As Democrats begin to raise their voice in opposition to Trump’s agenda, protests have multiplied.

USA - Thanks to DOGE, we have been learning that our government has been doing lots of very bad things. The entire world is watching in horror as the crimes of the United States government under the Biden administration are being revealed by DOGE for all the world to see. Election interference, overthrowing governments, ruthless censorship of ideas, funding terrorism, funding abortion, targeting politicians for harrassment and promoting the exploitation of children are just some of the crimes against humanity that our government has been committing. As I have dug into all this, I have been absolutely amazed by the scale of the corruption that has been going on.

USA - The CIA has offered so-called buyouts to its agents as part of US President Donald Trump’s effort to downsize the federal government, CNN and the Wall Street Journal reported on Tuesday. The idea behind the proposal is reportedly to hone the agency into a “more aggressive” tool better suited to exerting influence on the country’s immediate neighbors. According to both outlets, the buyout program – officially called ‘Deferred Retirement’ – will allow employees to resign with about eight months of pay and benefits. The overall initiative, which could potentially be applicable to 2.4 million federal employees, is designed to streamline government operations, promote efficiency, and save tens of billions of dollars in public spending.

GERMANY - The German government could pledge troops to a proposed NATO mission in Greenland, according to sources cited by Der Spiegel on Tuesday. The reported initiative by European members of the military bloc would aim to mitigate tensions created by President Donald Trump’s push for US sovereignty over the Danish island. Trump has framed his bid for Greenland as a national security issue, claiming that the US could utilize the island to bolster its influence in the Arctic amid rising competition with Russia and China. Greenland is also rich in raw minerals, which could become more accessible due to climate change. Trump has not ruled out using military force and economic coercion against NATO ally Denmark.

USA - The current fracas around USAid has been a long time in the making. Much of the media is discussing Elon Musk’s attacks on the agency as being part of his general programme to clean out the federal government and slim it down. Musk will no doubt find his fair share of white elephants amid the USAid receipts, but this is not the core issue at stake in this row.

USA - The writing is on the wall for the US Agency for International Development (USAID), and former Congressman Ron Paul isn’t holding back. As President Trump’s administration begins an unprecedented federal overhaul, USAID has found itself in the crosshairs — exposed as a slush fund for globalist interventionism rather than a true humanitarian organization. And leading the charge? None other than Elon Musk, whose newly formed Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) has begun systematically dismantling wasteful spending.

SYRIA - As the designated terrorist group Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) establishes its proto-government in Idlib, notoriously corrupt NGOs are stepping in to fill the gaps in public services, with some even defecting to work alongside the group. The United States, which spent two decades and $5.4 trillion overthrowing governments hostile to al-Qaeda, now finds itself in a paradoxical position. Modern al-Qaeda has carved out its own quasi-state in Syria, yet remains on the US list of Foreign Terrorist Organizations. To characterize this as a foreign policy misstep would be reductive; the US has actively facilitated HTS’s conquest of parts of Syria while maintaining its official terrorist designation.

USA - US President Donald Trump on Tuesday suggested permanently displacing Palestinians from Gaza, saying people there had no alternative but to leave the Palestinian enclave devastated by Israel's military assault. Why it's important: Trump, who was to meet Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Tuesday, first floated the suggestion of displacing Palestinians from Gaza on January 25 by urging Egypt and Jordan take in more people. When asked back then if he was suggesting a long-term or short-term solution, he said: "Could be either." He has since reiterated that plan at least four times, including on Tuesday when he said Palestinians in Gaza could go to other countries beyond Jordan and Egypt as well. Jordan, Egypt and other Arab nations, as well as Palestinian leaders, have publicly rejected the idea that critics say would amount to ethnic cleansing.