CHINA - Beijing is aiming to secure a total victory against all its rivals and enemies, heralding in the dawn of a new age of Chinese world hegemony. Xi Jinping is preparing to launch a "war without limits" against the West in his quest to retake Taiwan, according to a China expert. President Xi Jinping has made no secret of his ambition to annex the island state across the Taiwan straits, as he seeks to make his mark on history. In preparation for the grand event, the Chinese dictator is closely observing events in Ukraine, and in particular the West's response. And one of the key lessons he appears to have learned is the need to create a firewall that would protect China's economy from punitive Western sanctions.

ITALY - Around 1,500 fascists descended on the streets of Milan, sparking an investigation by the city's prosecutor and drawing widespread condemnation. The group, dressed mainly in black, marched through the city on Monday before standing together in a military style and delivering fascist salutes. Leading the marchers, six of the group carried a black banner with white typeface that read: "Honour fallen comrades". The demonstrators were out in force to mark the death of a 19-year-old far-right radical, who was killed by a group of leftists in 1975. Sergio Ramelli, a member of the student wing of the Italian Social Movement, a party formed by supporters of Benito Mussolini, was beaten to death by two members of the hard-left paramilitary group Avanguardia Operaia in Milan.

IRAQ - Iraq’s parliament has passed a law banning same-sex relations and transgenderism. The measure was condemned by the US and UK, but the speaker of the parliament described it as “a necessary step to protect the value structure of society.” The amended Law on Combating Prostitution and Homosexuality passed the legislature on Saturday. According to a copy of the law seen by Reuters, it mandates prison sentences of 10-15 years for anyone engaging in homosexual relations, seven years for anyone who promotes homosexuality or prostitution, and between one and three years for anyone who changes their “biological gender” or dresses in an effeminate manner.

INDONESIA - The Mount Ruang volcano in Indonesia erupted for a second time this month as a tsunami alert was issued and an airport was forced to close. It has caused widespread disruption with an airport forced to close as ash was propelled nearly a mile into the sky - and debris rained down on nearby villages. This follows an increase in the alert level for the Sulawesi Island volcano after sensors detected heightened volcanic activity.

ISRAEL - We have been here before, but Israel woke up on Sunday to renewed hope that a ceasefire could be brokered with Hamas and the remaining 139 hostages returned. The reported shift in the Israeli position sparked anger from sources close to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Saturday night who, playing with words, said Israel’s war aims remained unchanged - something the new formulation allows for. Nevertheless the new deal - if accepted by Hamas - could spark a political crisis in Israel. The extreme Right-wing parties that Netanyahu’s finely balanced coalition relies on have long said they will pull out if he stops the war before Hamas is wholly defeated.

ISRAEL - Israel has agreed to listen to US concerns before it launches an invasion of Rafah, where more than 1.5 million people are sheltering, the White House has said. “They [the Israelis] have assured us that they won’t go into Rafah until we’ve had a chance to really share our perspectives and our concerns with them, so we’ll see where that goes,” said John Kirby, the White House national security spokesperson in an interview with ABC. It comes after the Palestinian president urged Joe Biden to intervene, saying that he expects Israel to attack the southern city in the coming days.

USA - Secretary of State Antony Blinken has urged the Palestinian militant group to take Israel’s latest ceasefire offer. Israel’s latest ceasefire proposal is “extraordinarily, extraordinarily generous” and should be swiftly accepted by Hamas to spare Gazans from further bloodshed, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken has argued. “The only thing standing between the people of Gaza and a ceasefire is Hamas,” the top US diplomat said on Monday at a special meeting of the World Economic Forum (WEF) in Riyadh. “They have to decide, and they have to decide quickly. I’m hopeful that they will make the right decision.”

UK - Claire Coutinho is set to warn against a green “leviathan of central planning” and argue that it should be the free market, instead of the state, that drives progress towards climate goals. The UK’s target of reaching net zero carbon emissions by 2050 is enshrined in law and has been backed by all governments since Theresa May was in power. But Rishi Sunak’s government has delayed or diluted a number of medium-term goals, with the Prime Minister saying that making progress towards net zero should not come at the expense of working families. He has faced calls to further water down or even abandon green policies from Tory backbenchers, who fear they could cost the party support at the general election.

RUSSIA - The ever-growing anti-Russia sentiment in the West stems from the fact that Russia adheres to traditional values that Western “progressives” are trying to destroy, philosopher and political commentator Aleksandr Dugin said in an interview with journalist Tucker Carlson that was posted on the latter’s YouTube channel on Monday. During the interview, Dugin laid out his view of the contemporary Western world and what he sees as the historical origins of its current ideology. He explained that the West has moved from “classical liberalism” – which professed individual freedom and democracy as understood as the rule of the majority – to a “new liberalism” defined by the rule of minorities and woke-ism.

USA - The US government plans to borrow more cash from private investors this quarter than initially forecast amid less-than-expected tax receipts, the Treasury Department said on Monday. According to the department’s latest Treasury Refunding Announcement, Washington anticipates borrowing $243 billion in the April-June period. This is $41 billion higher than officials projected at the beginning of the year and much greater than market forecasts. For the January-March quarter, the Treasury borrowed $748 billion in private marketable debt, slightly under the first estimate of $760 billion. This was mainly due to lower federal outlays. Looking ahead to the July-September quarter, the department expects to borrow $847 billion.

USA - Back in December, a viral video series on TikTok celebrated the DINK (dual-income, no kids) lifestyle, glorying in their ability to take European vacations, go crazy with bulk purchases at Costco, and splurge on their pets. At first, I thought it was a joke, though as Federalist Executive Editor Joy Pullmann helped me understand, these unabashedly materialist young American couples were quite serious. They really believed the freedoms they enjoyed sans children were a superior form of life to the supposed drudgery that defines the lives of us hapless parents.

IRAN - In the midst of the Hamas-Israel conflict - while the world's attention is fixed on the war Iran and Hamas began - Iran's ruling mullahs have seized the opportunity to advance their nuclear program. By backing, arming and training Hamas, Hezbollah and the Houthis, Iran launched a proxy war against Israel, leveraging the conflict in part to divert attention from its nuclear ambitions. The calculated move not only serves Iran's immediate interests in destabilizing its adversaries - the United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia, Jordan, Bahrain and most of all the United States, which it would like to see out of the region, so Iran could presumably have the Middle East all to itself - the diversion of the Gaza war also aligns with its goal of eradicating Israel.

ISRAEL - Israel launched fresh overnight airstrikes on the Southern Gazan city of Rafah early today killing at least 27 people - while also pounding Hezbollah targets in Lebanon. The deadly raids came just hours after the Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas urgently called on the United States to stop Israel from attacking Rafah, warning it was now the only country in the world which could prevent the “crime”. But Israel carried out yesterday’s deadly aerial assault despite the plea.

USA - And there it is: Campus Protester Says ‘We must have a revolution so we can have a socialist reconstruction of the USA’. In case you were wondering what all these campus protests are really all about, this should answer any remaining questions. During an anti-Israel campus protest at George Washington University this weekend, a speaker said ‘We must have a revolution so we can have a socialist reconstruction of the United States of America.’ That’s the quiet part out loud right there. Do you think this is what the founders of George Washington University had in mind for their school? This is Occupy Wall Street all over again, they’re just using the conflict in the Middle East as a cover cause.

NIGER - The United States will pull the majority of its troops from Chad and Niger as it works to restore key agreements governing what role there might be there for the American military and its counterterrorism operations, the Pentagon said Thursday. Both African countries have been integral to the US military’s efforts to counter violent extremist organizations across the Sahel region, but Niger’s ruling junta ended an agreement last month that allows US troops to operate in the West African country. In recent days, neighboring Chad also has questioned whether an existing agreement covered the US troops operating there.