Europe

Authorities in Belgium are going to supply the entire population of 11 million citizens with iodine pills to protect against a potential nuclear war in Europe.  Health Minister Maggie De Block says the drastic measure is to safeguard members of the public against a potential nuclear accident. Yahoo News reports: Iodine pills, which help reduce radiation build-up in the thyroid gland, had previously only been given to people living within 20 kilometres (14 miles) of the Tihange and Doel nuclear plants.

A newly released financial report reveals that a Ukraine based anti-Putin TV station is almost entirely funded by North America and Europe.  The anti-Russian Kiev-based station Hromadske.TV was set up to spread anti-Moscow propaganda and has nearly a dozen western government agencies financially supporting it, according to a 2015 report. Forbes.com reports: Who are they? They are the Canada International Development Agency (CIDA); the Embassy of The Netherlands in Ukraine; another Canadian charity called the Ukrainian World Foundation; independent DC-based Pact World; the U.S.

We often use big, overarching ideas to help us understand the world and the opportunities contained within. These narratives, which can change over time, are used to create context. They give us a frame of reference for comprehending the news and events that affect our outlook on things.

As VisualCapitalist's Jeff Desjardins notes, China’s economic prowess is one of these new paradigms that has emerged, but many people still can’t really wrap their heads around the scale or scope of it.

Submitted by Annie Zhou via FinancialRepressionAuthority.com,

FRA Co-founder Gordon T. Long is joined by Professor Michael Hudson in discussing his concept of the FIRE economy and its influence on the production and consumption economy, along with some of his writings.

Tensions continue to escalate between the US and Russia. As a reminder, Russia conducted several close encounter fly-bys when first a Russian Su-24 "buzzed" the US missile destroyer USS Donald Cook in the Baltic Sea, and just days later flew within 50 feet of a US recon plane also flying over the Baltic Sea. The U.S. quickly responded and complained vocally to Russia, followed quickly by the first deployment of US F-22 stealth fighter to Romania, in close proximity to both the Black Sea and 400 km from the Russian military stronghold of Sevastopol on the Crimean Peninsula.