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Dutch watch teams and watch app groups on the rise, more than 700 teams and 3500 groups now exist in the country, promoted by majority of municipalities as way to prevent crime and help troubled youths, criticised by academics for not following central policy on how to conduct their activities but rather adapting to local circumstances
World
North Korea calls raid on its Madrid embassy "grave terrorist attack", just days before the Hanoi summit between Kim Jong Un and Donald Trump a group of armed men burst into the embassy and stole documents and computers, North Korea suggests possible involvement of FBI and anti-DPRK body and calls on Spanish authorities to bring "terrorists and their wire-pullers to justice"
Austrian Chancellor Sebastian Kurz claims a financial link between Brenton Tarrant and the Identitarian Movement, head of the Identitarians Martin Sellner received a donation of EUR 1,500 in 2018 involving an email address that matched the name of Tarrant, Sellner denies any connection with Tarrent and says police have raided his house, Kurz says Austria is looking into dissolving the movement
Attackers behind assault on North Korean embassy in Madrid fled to US via Portugal, ten individuals broke into the embassy on February 22, assaulting personnel and taking computers and cellphones with them, seven of the assailants have been identified, including their alleged leader Adrian Hong Chang
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Miscellaneous
Fake online reviews commonplace, users write fake reviews online in exchange for money and free products, some companies avoid using review sites because of risk of competing with phony reviews, using consumer's personal data to create fake verified reviews, known as "brushing", leaves a paper trail showing goods have been bought and delivered
England RFU puts Billy Vunipola on five-year warning over his defence of Christian Instagram post by Israel Folau, which led to Folau being sacked by Rugby Australia, Vunipola told of his responsibilities to share RFU's values on inclusivity and respect, warning will be taken into account in future disciplinary proceedings for a period of five years, his club Saracens intends to educate him soon
Man places USD 85,000 wager at 14-1 odds on Tiger Woods winning the Masters and wins USD 1.19 million, flew from Wisconsin to Las Vegas with the USD 85,000 cash in a backpack and placed the bet after two casinos had rejected his wager, was USD 25,000 in debt after his protein supplement business had gone under four months ago
Rugby star Israel Folau sacked by Rugby Australia over allegedly anti-gay Instagram posting in which drunks, homosexuals, adulterers, liars, fornicators, thieves, atheists and idolaters are told Hell awaits, Folau see no cause to reconsider his stance and is content to walk away from rugby if that is God's plan for him, reports say he may have legal case for religious discrimination
Canadian family decides to keep driving when its 87-year-old patriarch dies in backseat while returning home from Florida vacation, when stopped at US-Canada border authorities find the father who had died from a heart attack at least a day before, family cited high cost of US health care, plus cost of shipping the body back to Quebec as reason for not stopping
Politics
Julian Assange reportedly set to be expelled from Ecuadorian embassy in London, President Lenin Moreno says Assange repeatedly violated terms of his asylum stating he cannot intervene in politics of other countries, comments made after Government said photos of Moreno and family from when they lived in Europe were shared by WikiLeaks
Bernie Sanders against expanding the nine-member Supreme Court, a proposal some liberal activists have advocated, worried next time Republicans are in power they will do the same thing, Sanders would consider term limits for Supreme Court justices or rotation between highest court and lower-level appeals courts
Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) hit with new ethics complaint after obtaining an official @mail.house.gov e-mail address for her boyfriend by falsely designating him a staff member, claims the account was given so he could have access to her calendar, boyfriend has previously received two payments for USD 3,000 from Brand New Congress PAC
Emmanuel Macron set out proposals for a "European renaissance", says the EU needs to stop member states "retreating into nationalism", wants to create new bodies to protect the bloc against cyber-attacks and spreading of fake news, ban foreign powers financing European political parties, introduce a EU minimum wage and target zero carbon by 2050
Opinion
Daniel McCarthy: Libertarians at least as suicidal as left-liberals, the economic crisis they focus on will be preceded by political and cultural ones of greater importance, libertarians seem numb to meaningful details such as the difference between Islam and Christianity while focusing on broader structures, tax cuts and de-regulation not enough since markets depend on civilization and nation
Robert Kajiwara: US military base construction on Okinawa sparks increased independence calls, 70% of Japanese military installations on Okinawa despite representing 0.6% of its landmass, the Henoko base, deemed unnecessary by both US and Japan, threatens world's 2nd most biodiverse coral reef and further denies economic opportunity to natives on prime real estate, less than half of population satisfied with being Japanese prefecture
Jonathan Head: Speculations whether Thaksin Shinawatra had a green light from King Vajiralongkorn to nominate Princess Ubolratana and the king then change his mind or if he assumed Princess Ubolratana had her brother's approval and took a reckless gamble, to be on the receiving end of such explicit royal disapproval is normally a devastating blow
Claudio Sopranzetti: Princess Ubolratanas's short-lived candidacy revealed a rift within Bangkok conservative elites, some of whom showed that their hate for the Shinawatras may be stronger than their adulation for the royal family, it also exposed a division within the pro-democracy camp between those who celebrated the nomination of the princess as a brilliant tactical move and those who saw it as a huge mistake, additionally it seem to have affected the relation between General Prayuth and King Vajiralongkorn
Vox Day: The death of 4,500 Boomers a day a cause for joy, 66 million left of these tiresome narcissistic morons droning on about themselves for over forty years, Boomer Hate will increase as Millennials wake up to how Boomers screwed them over by abandoning their familial and societal responsibilities
John Garnaut: Xi Jinping has continued and distilled the Marx-Lenin-Stalin-Mao belief system, central to Chinese Communist thought is the perpetual struggle against counter-revolutionary forces, Mao's most dedicated research was in the area of Chinese epics which told of imperial decay, Xi seeks to re-invigorate Chinese communism to break the historical curse of decline of the rulers
Europe
Dutch watch teams and watch app groups on the rise, more than 700 teams and 3500 groups now exist in the country, promoted by majority of municipalities as way to prevent crime and help troubled youths, criticised by academics for not following central policy on how to conduct their activities but rather adapting to local circumstances
Dutch government was wrong to strip Dutch nationality from two convicted jihadis, highest court says, law making it possible was only introduced in 2017 and the two men joined jihadi groups in Iraq and Syria in 2013 and 2014 and it is unclear if they were still active when the law was brought in, the men’s current whereabouts is unknown
Nigel Farage's new Brexit Party could win EU Elections YouGov poll reveals, survey shows support at 27%, 5% ahead of Labour and 12% ahead of Conservatives, party wants to leave EU with no deal, in major coup Tory defector and Jacob Rees-Mogg's sister Annunziata was revealed as star candidate last week
Roger Scruton fired from position as adviser to UK government after accurately stating in interview that Islamophobia is a propaganda word invented by Muslim Brotherhood in order to stop discussion of a major issue, George Eaton in same interview stripped out context of Scruton comment on Chinese Communist Party making it appear racist
Restaurant manager Yann Abdelhamid Mohamadi sentenced to a year in prison for falsely claiming to be at his Casa Nostra restaurant during ISIS terrorist attack in November 2015, attempting to win compensation from national victim's guarantee fund, Mohamadi was convicted in 2018 for selling video of 2015 attack to Daily Mail for EUR 50,000
North America
Scotty Garnell Morrow who fatally shot his ex-girlfriend and her friend in the head 25 years ago set to be executed in Georgia, lawyers say death penalty is rarely obtained for spontaneous and emotionally-charged killings, claims Morrow is a genuinely nice guy and the years of bullying he experienced as a child should be taken into account
Three women in California who say they were raped by men posing as Uber drivers files lawsuit against the company claiming they were not warned about fake rideshare drivers targeting women leaving bars and nightclubs in the Los Angeles area, Uber say it has been working for several years on how passengers can protect themselves against fake drivers
American authorities arrest Rondell Henry who allegedly planned terrorist attack in Maryland, the 28-year-old man from Germantown stole U-Haul van with the intention of using it against pedestrians at National Harbor, Henry harbors hatred towards non-Muslims and was inspired by 2016 ISIS terrorist attack in Nice
Latin America
Mysterious group of five armed Americans arrested by Haitian police in Port-au-Prince, they claim they were on a "government mission" and traveled without license plates or visa stamps showing entry, Haiti has seen protests and other civil disturbances calling for resignation of Haitian President Jovenel Moïse
Venezuela's Supreme Court bans opposition leader Juan Guaidó from leaving the country and freezes his bank accounts, Maduro says he's prepared to hold negotiations, US has handed control of Venezuela's US bank accounts to Guaidó and National Security Adviser John Bolton warns anyone attempting to harm "President Guaidó"
Middle East
Ikea in Israel sued for gender discrimination over catalogue that doesn't depict women, Orthodox Jewish woman Hannah Katsman's suit alleges the lack of images connotes "women have no value", the catalogue was specially created for Israel's ultra-Orthodox community but the company states it does not live up to their standards
Saudi Arabia accuses Iran of harboring "the board of directors of al-Qaida" whilst Iran claim Saudi Arabia and Pakistan coordinated the bombing killing 27 personnel of the Iranian Islamic Revolution Guards Corps, meanwhile Saudi Arabia and Pakistan sign bilateral investment projects worth USD 20 billion in the energy sector, Saudi crown prince orders release of 2,100 of about 3,000 Pakistanis being detained in Saudi jails
Economy
Alibaba owned online healthcare platform Xiang Hu Bao provides basic health plan where participants share each other's medical expenses, costs capped at USD 28 per month, covers 100 illnesses and has reached 50 million users since its launch in October, anyone with Alipay app credit score of 600 can join
McDonald’s will no longer lobby against minimum wage hikes, believes that all industries should be treated the same way, the company and its franchisees have an average starting wage exceeding USD 10 per hour, could boost House Democrats and their efforts to raise the minimum wage to USD 15 per hour
Uber confirms acquisition of Middle East ride-hailing service Careem for USD 3.1 billion, Dubai-based Careem claims more than 30 million users and 1 million drivers spread across 14 markets, following similar growth model as Uber, using underlying transport network infrastructure to expand into related services, including food and pharmaceutical deliveries
Technology
Non-profit Archive.org hit with more than 550 takedown notices from EU asking them to remove archives including all books, TV footage and cartoons, falsely citing terrorist content, EU currently drafting legislation with fines of 4% of global revenue if takedown notices are not honoured within an hour
Phone-hacking device law enforcement officials use to extract data from phones pops up on eBay for USD 100, personal data including photos, contacts and messages could still be found on the units, the devices use vulnerabilities unknown at the time to the likes of Apple or Google to access the phones, producer's terms don't permit clients to resell the products
Science
32-year-old Greek woman gives birth to boy with DNA from three people, using experimental form of IVF using an egg from the mother, sperm from the father and another egg from a donor woman, some say procedure raises ethical questions, Dr Panagiotis Psathas, president of Institute of Life in Athens, says every woman's inalienable right to become a mother with her own genetic material has become a reality
Mitochondrial DNA analysis may identify serial killer Jack the Ripper as Polish barber Aaron Kosminski, was identified by witness to one of the killings who then refused to testify against him, scientists analyzed blood-stained shawl from fourth victim Catherine Eddowes, linking Kosminski to the crimes
European particle physics research centre Cern decides not to extend Professor Alessandro Strumia's status of guest professor, decision follows investigation into comments made by Prof Strumia on gender equality, have said "physics was invented and built by men, it's not by invitation" and that work conducted by female physicists is not as good as their male counterparts