USA - IMF Managing Director Christine Lagarde made headlines all over the globe this week when she declared that “the risk of a sharper decline in global growth has certainly increased”. As you will see below, signs of economic trouble are popping up all over the planet, and pretty much just about everyone is now acknowledging that the global economy is slowing down. But does that mean that we are headed for a global recession in 2019?

EUROPE - The end of quantitative easing will increase the risk of countries defaulting on their debt and may start a “game of political chicken” in the eurozone if Italy needs a Greek-style bailout, Credit Suisse has warned. Government debt levels have climbed since the financial crisis on the back of an unprecedented period of low interest rates. In the years since 2008 central banks have been printing money, known as quantitative easing, but are now winding up those schemes. The global debt burden now stands at 225 percent of GDP, the highest level since World War II. The world is awash with $247 trillion of debt, including $63 trillion owed by central governments. This is “the big tail risk”…

SWITZERLAND - Some would call it ironic, others hypocritical but whatever your level of cynicism, here are the facts: as its top global risks for 2018 and 2019 in terms of likelihood, this year's billionaire boondoggle at the World Economic Forum in Davos listed "extreme weather conditions", ie global warming… and yet, according to Air Charter Service, no less than 1,500 private jet flights will land in Davos over the five days of its duration: a 50% increase in both private jets and toxic environmental emissions compared to last year, when roughly 1,000 private jets descended upon Davos.

SWITZERLAND - US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo breezed into the sanctum sanctorum of the globalism debate to warn that multinational pillars of the old order should be allowed to die unless they raise their game. Singing paeans to the resurgent nation state, he told the World Economic Forum in Davos that populist revolt of the last two years has been a force for good. “New winds are blowing across the world. People are asking questions that haven’t been asked or taken seriously for an awfully long time,” he said. He cited Brexit, the rise of the (anti-EU) Five Star Movement, and the election of Donald Trump as evidence that democracies are taking back control, “embracing the time-tested truth that nations matter”…

RUSSIA - Russian President Vladimir Putin and Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe are meeting in Moscow on Tuesday to discuss a decades-long dispute over a group of islands seized by the Soviets at the end of World War II.  The disagreement over the Kuril Islands, which Japan calls its Northern Territories, has prevented the countries from ever signing a peace treaty to formally end the war.  Russian police detained 11 protesters outside the Japanese embassy in Moscow on Tuesday as they rallied against the idea of giving control of the islands to Japan, Russian protest monitor OVD-Info said.  The disputed islands of Iturup (Etorofu in Japanese), Kunashir (Kunashiri), Shikotan and Habomai lie at their closest point just a few kilometers off the north coast of Hokkaido in Japan.  In 1956, the two countries issued a joint declaration that the then-Soviet Union was willing to give up Shikotan and Haboma.

USA - The World Health Organization, a criminal cartel front for the vaccine industry, has just declared war on the so-called “anti-vax” movement. The WHO is the same group that spiked vaccines given to women in Africa with abortion/infertility drugs. The WHO is also the same fraudulent group that falsely declared H5N1 bird flu to be a “stage 6 pandemic” in order to create global panic that generated billions of dollars in vaccine sales to world government (which stockpiled the vaccines and then later spent a fortune having the unused vaccine destroyed).

USA - Catholic leaders publicly condemned school boys, but remain silent after videos proved their innocence. Catholic leaders across the country immediately condemned Covington Catholic High School students accused of confronting and mocking a Native American elder, despite videos proving their innocence. Bishops, priests, nuns, dioceses and even the students’ school condemned their actions as “bigoted” after a short clip of a confrontation between the students and Nathan Phillips circulated Friday on Twitter.

USA - The New York Senate passed a radical pro-abortion bill Tuesday that would allow unborn babies to be aborted for basically any reason up to birth. Metro reports the bill passed after abortion activists pushed it for more than a decade in New York. Until now, it failed to pass the state Senate because of Republican lawmakers, but the November election put pro-abortion Democrats in control of both houses. The vote was 38-24.

USA - Ultrasound is a highly controversial topic. It can now be said, without hyperbole, that an understanding of its mysteries are essential to the well-being of the individual and the human species. The word “ultrasound” commonly refers to diagnostic ultrasound, an acoustic technology utilized to view images of the fetus in real time, its position within the mother, and to view the mother’s reproductive organs. It is an economic boon to medical practitioners who advocate its routine use.

ISRAEL - There was a strike on Damascus, then, unusually, a surface-to-surface missile was shot from Syria toward Israeli territory and was intercepted by an Iron Dome battery. Following this, the air force mounted another attack during the night, hitting a number of Iranian Revolutionary Guards' targets in Syria.

UK - Theresa May has left European diplomats in a state of “disbelief” following a series of phone calls to EU leaders in which she made no change to her demands despite her Brexit plan being voted down by a 230-vote margin this week. Senior EU diplomatic sources said that Mrs May’s unchanged stance was “greeted with incredulity” following a call with the German Chancellor Angela Merkel on Thursday night. “It was the same old story - the same set of demands - all unchanged despite the defeat,” said the source with knowledge of the calls. Mrs May is understood to have repeated the same performance in conversations with the French president Emmanuel Macron, the Dutch prime minister Mark Rutte…

UK - The Queen could be asked to block backbench legislation which could frustrate Theresa May's Brexit plans. A senior Government minister confirmed that one option was for the Queen to be asked not to give royal assent to any backbench legislation drawn up by Tory MPs Dominic Grieve or Nick Boles which is given debating time. Any veto would be the first time a Monarch has blocked Parliamentary legislation since Queen Anne vetoed the Scottish Militia Act in 1707 and would set the Queen against John Bercow, the Speaker, who has enabled Mr Grieve's attempts to seize control of the Brexit process to go ahead.

USA - The US commandos careened between grief and anger as Alex Conrad’s flag-draped coffin was hoisted onto the cargo plane. Al-Shabaab militants allied with al Qaeda had killed Staff Sergeant Conrad at a rudimentary outpost that American Green Berets built with help of the Somali army. Now, just as Sergeant Conrad’s comrades were sending him on his final trip home, they were grappling with more bad news. The Somali army had abandoned the outpost hours after the sergeant died.

USA - Imagine sending your son or daughter off to college, only to have him or her return as a “her” or “him” instead. We’re talking about transgenderism, here, and a growing contingent of parents says their formerly normal children are being brainwashed into believing that they’re the opposite gender while away at school – and in some cases are actually getting hormonally and surgically altered without their parents’ knowledge or consent.

USA - A significant reason why a smart TV, or perhaps a new 65-inch 4K smart TV with HDR capability, can be purchased for about $500, is because some manufacturers are harvesting data from users. Vizio’s Chief Technology Officer, Bill Baxter, outlined the strategy to The Verge during the Consumer Electronics Expo in Las Vegas, Nevada last Monday. "This is a cut-throat industry. It's a 6% margin industry," Baxter said. "The greater strategy is I really don't need to make money off of the TV. I need to cover my cost." More specifically, electronic manufacturers like Vizio have figured out that they can sell smart TVs at, or around cost, and concentrate on data harvesting and post-purchase monetization.