UNITED NATIONS - A new report on famine around the world makes for grim reading, showing starvation ravaging 53 countries, mostly due to conflict and climate shocks. In some places, like Yemen, the crisis is almost entirely man-made. Some 113 million people in 53 countries, the majority of them in Africa, faced chronic food shortages last year. Another 143 million people in 42 countries were found to be living in “[s]tressed conditions, on the cusp of acute hunger.” The growing problem is reflected in the increasing global spend on humanitarian aid, which rose from $18.4 billion in 2013 to $27.3 billion in 2017. Despite the rise in aid, the report’s authors argue that “humanitarian assistance does not address the root causes of food crises.”

ISRAEL - A woman in her 40s has been taken to hospital in Israel with brain damage after being put on a strict juice diet. The woman, who was not identified, had been on the diet for three weeks after visiting an 'alternative therapist' in Tel Aviv. As part of the diet she was only allowed to consume fruit juice and water, which caused an imbalance of salt in her brain.

UK - Edward Heath claimed he would not have taken Britain into the EEC – the precursor to the EU – without “the full-hearted consent of Parliament and the people”, but he then brought forward legislation to join the bloc and did not hold a referendum, unearthed reports reveal. As Brexit chaos looms, newly resurfaced reports reveal that former Prime Minister Edward Heath was also accused of betrayal but for taking the UK into the bloc in the first place.

UK - As we began our Common Market membership in January 1973, the then Conservative PM Edward Heath told the nation on TV:

‘There are some in this country who fear that in going into Europe we shall in some way sacrifice independence and sovereignty. These fears, I need hardly say, are completely unjustified.’

Seventeen years later, in 1990, he said the opposite on BBC TV’s Question Time:

Peter Sissons: The single currency, a United States of Europe, was all that in your mind when you took Britain in?

Edward Heath: Of course, yes.

GERMANY - Angela Merkel will this week stage her most significant intervention in the Brexit process in more than two years, as the European Union moves to shield itself from the fallout of political chaos in Britain. The German chancellor is to hold talks with Irish Prime Minister Leo Varadkar in Dublin on Thursday and demand a plan to protect Ireland’s border should the UK crash out of the bloc without a deal, which could come as soon as April 12. The EU now sees this as a serious possibility and is focusing almost all of its work on how to contain the consequences, EU officials said.

GERMANY - This year's edition of the world's biggest industrial technology fair will give visitors glimpses into the factories of the future. German Chancellor Angela Merkel used her opening speech to issue a stark warning. German Chancellor Angela Merkel warned Sunday in a speech to mark the opening of the Hannover Messe that the EU needed to become more competitive in next-generation industrial technologies.

VATICAN - Pope Francis used strong language to condemn populism Sunday, suggesting that it gains followers through fear as Hitler did in the 1930s. “I see that many people of good will, not only Catholics, are a bit gripped by fear, which is the usual message of populism,” the pope told reporters aboard the papal plane returning from Morocco to Rome.

USA - At a recent conference, former Facebook security chief Alex Stamos stated that Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg has “more data about what people want to do online than anyone else in the world.” CNBC reports that speaking at the Washington Post’s technology and policy conference on Wednesday, former Facebook chief security officer Alex Stamos explained how Mark Zuckerberg manages to make decisions and business moves that eventually prove profitable but seem like huge gambles initially.

UK - Theresa May’s bitterly divided Cabinet is on the brink of collapse as ministers on both sides of the Brexit debate prepare to walk out on her. Mrs May is facing revolts from both Remain-backing and Brexiteer members of her top team as she collects herself and plans her next move following a humiliating third defeat of her deal. While those in favour of a hard Brexit or a no deal Brexit are heaping pressure on the premier not to accept a customs union, many of those on the Remain wing of her Cabinet will resign in protest if she backs a no deal option. The Sunday Times reported that while at least six ministers are willing to leave their posts if the UK crashes out of the bloc without a deal, a string of Brexiteer ministers are also warning they are not prepared to stay on if the UK ends up in a soft Brexit.

UK - Cabinet ministers will attempt to take control of Brexit by telling Theresa May it is “time to embrace no deal” after her EU Withdrawal Agreement was rejected by MPs for a third time. Mrs May will hold a conference call with ministers on Sunday night amid calls for a Cabinet vote on how to proceed. Senior backbenchers said the Prime Minister had reached the end of the road and should now quit, but Mrs May stood firm and wants to put her deal to a Parliamentary vote for a fourth time next week. She hinted that if MPs refuse to follow her she might call a general election to break the impasse, warning MPs: “I fear we are reaching the limits of this process in this House.”

UK - Conservative MPs from across the party are threatening to vote down any attempt by Theresa May to lead them into a snap election, warning it would split the Tories and exacerbate the Brexit crisis. In a sign of the collapse in authority suffered by the prime minister, cabinet ministers are among those warning that there will be a serious campaign by Conservative MPs to vote against an election headed by May, a move she hinted at last week to break the Brexit deadlock. The threat of an election immediately angered both pro-Brexit and pro-Remain MPs. May would need a two-thirds majority in the Commons to secure one, meaning a serious rebellion by Tories could block it. May would then be forced to secure an election by backing a no-confidence vote in her own government, which only requires a simple majority of MPs. Foreign Office minister Alan Duncan said: “If we have a general election before Brexit is resolved, it will only make things worse.”

USA - Citigroup has issued an explicit recession warning for the United States, advising clients to wind down exposure to risky assets and prepare to ride out the storm. The bank’s global investment team said the US Federal Reserve over-tightened monetary policy last year, waiting too long to stop raising interest rates or to slow the pace of quantitative tightening (reverse QE). The economy is already shot below the waterline and will mostly likely succumb to the textbook pathologies of a fading expansion. “The US economy seems to be transitioning into a stagnation phase after a brief period of goldilocks on a sugar high of fiscal stimulus. We advise investors to prepare for recession,” it said.

USA - Germany is being pressurized to act against its own economic interests – and put those of US business first. A key reason behind the recent ratcheting up of Cold War tensions by the US has been to try and get Germany to cancel its involvement in Nord Stream 2, which is currently 70 percent complete. In late 2018, Ambassador Grenell warned that German companies involved in Nord Stream 2 could face sanctions. The US really hates it when there’s a competitor in town. Europeans shouldn’t buy the cheapest gas, but what the US wants to sell them.

RUSSIA - The Trump administration should make good on its own promise to pull troops out of Syria before telling others where they should or shouldn’t be, the Russian Foreign Ministry said in reply to Washington’s threat over Venezuela. “Before they have their say in the lawful interests of other nations, I would advise the US administration to fulfill the promises that it had given to the international community,” Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said, referring to US President Donald Trump’s pledge to get American troops out of Syria.

USA - For many the real meaning of life, the universe and everything has infinite possibilities. Across our existence, debate has raged as to what the answer is. But the key to unlocking the universe may now have finally be revealed. And the answer is 137. According to How Stuff Works, Arthur Miller, a professor of history and philosophy of science at University College London, believes the number still holds the mystery and significance to alter the universe. He said: “137 continues to fire the imagination of everyone from scientists and mystics to occultists and people from the far-flung edges of society. Physicists say that 137 is the approximate measure of the strength of the electromagnet force which powers electron and muon particles.” Leon Lederman, an iconic American physicist, once said that 137 “contains the crux of electromagnetism, relativity and quantum theory”.