In such a situation, “it is difficult to convince people with the logic that we should refrain from developing nuclear weapons and stick to the cause of denuclearisation,” he added. The mayor of Seoul, which hosts nearly half the country’s population of 51 million, said the Russia-Ukraine conflict has convinced him that South Korea should seek a nuclear deterrent.

“Russia freely violates Ukraine’s airspace, flying bombers and firing missiles... but Ukraine barely attacks Russian territory because of the psychological inferiority to a nuclear state,” Oh said.

Meta also plans to close about 5,000 job postings that have yet to be filled, Mr Zuckerberg said in the memo. “This will be tough and there’s no way around that,” he wrote.

Mr Zuckerberg is culling employees after years of hiring at a breakneck pace. His company gobbled up workers as its family of apps, which also include WhatsApp, became popular worldwide. The coronavirus pandemic also supercharged the use of mobile apps, leading to more growth. At its peak last year, Meta had 87,000 full-time employees.

On an earnings call in February, the chief executive said he did not want the company to be overstuffed with a layer of middle management, or “managers managing managers.” He said he took responsibility for last year’s layoffs, blaming his zeal for staffing up on the surge of use early in the pandemic.

In Germany, skepticism of the merits of military strength has enabled a long post-Cold War process of disarmament. As a result, it is a historic anomaly in the heart of Europe — an economic leviathan but a military minnow. Now German leaders are vowing to transform the country into a military power capable of taking responsibility for Europe’s security.

In Nienburg, a medieval town in Lower Saxony, civilians come to train for “homeland protection” units in the country’s reserves. The question is whether a hesitant German society can follow through on this paradigm shift.

“I would say, many of them lean in the direction of being pacifists,” said Anne Katrin Meister, who is training at the base in Nienburg. “But you can only be a pacifist if you have this safe, ideal world. And we don’t have such a world.”

The Bank of England announced on Friday that the UK arm of SVB was to go into insolvency on Sunday night after Californian authorities took control of the business this week. Mr Hunt, Prime Minister Rishi Sunak and the Governor of the Bank of England held crisis talks until late last night amid concerns over the UK's tech and life science sectors.

They have since promised to 'minimise' damage to British firms from SVB's collapse and issued assurances there is no 'systemic risk' to the UK's financial system. The Chancellor this morning also refused to rule out a taxpayer-funded bailout to protect affected businesses. 'The first thing to say is the Governor of the Bank of England has made it very clear there is no systemic risk to our financial system - so people should be reassured on that basis,' Mr Hunt told Sky News' Sophy Ridge on Sunday show.

Following SVB's collapse, tech companies in Britain have had their accounts frozen, meaning they have no access to their money and are unable to pay staff. Major firms such as online retail giant Shopify and Pinterest are also directly affected by the failure.

The chaotic episode showed that the Fed's aggressive interest rate hiking regime could upend institutions that were once thought to be relatively stable. It appears that any rate sensitivity is about to be laid bare, and past risk-taking behavior held accountable.

The big questions now become what rate-sensitive areas will be next to feel the pain, and whether there's any real risk of financial-system contagion. And perhaps most ominously, SVB likely isn't the only bank that's sitting on billions of dollars of paper losses on their bond portfolio, so watch out for further rate-driven ripples.

In an article published on Global Research, Princeton University alumnus F William Engdahl said President Joe Biden’s administration as well as the European Union have been insisting that the energy crunch was brought about by Russian President Vladimir Putin’s offensive in Kyiv. However, Engdahl noted that BlackRock CEO Larry Fink is believed to be the one stirring up the energy crisis pot.

In January 2020, Fink sent a letter to his Wall Street colleagues and corporate CEOs announcing a radical departure from corporate investment by saying that money would “go green.” “In the near future – and sooner than most anticipate – there will be a significant re-allocation of capital. Climate risk is investment risk,” Fink said, stressing that “every government, company and shareholder must confront climate change.”

Fink, who manages some $7 trillion in investments, wrote a separate letter to their investor clients where he indicated that his company will cut certain high-carbon investments such as coal and that he would screen new investments in oil, gas and coal to determine their adherence to the United Nations’ Agenda 2030. He said companies and governments that do not respond to stakeholders and address sustainability risks will encounter growing skepticism from the markets, which would cause a higher cost of capital.

“Climate change has become a defining factor in companies’ long-term prospects. We are on the edge of a fundamental reshaping of finance,” he said.

A daily scan of the newswires calls to mind three or more of these propaganda rules. On some days, six or seven. On others still, all 10. We refer specifically to the conflict presently arage in the eastern European nation of Ukraine. Let us now consider these rules. We will not take up each of them since some rules relate closely to others. We will instead weld these together. To proceed…

1. We don’t want war, we are only defending ourselves.

2. The other guy is solely responsible for this war.

On how many occasions have you read or heard condemnations of Mr Putin’s “unprovoked” act of aggression? To phrase it differently, when has it not been described as unprovoked? Yet a man can argue very persuasively that Mr Putin’s war was indeed provoked.

The Russian autocrat warned on several occasions that NATO expansion into Ukraine was a “red line.” Russia would not abide the NATO dagger pressing against its vitals (parts of Ukraine actually lie east of Moscow). Yet the NATO alliance had announced its intentions to incorporate Ukraine — despite Vladimir’s moans and grimaces.

7. We have very little losses, the enemy is losing big. 270,000 Russian Casualties? Source after source cites claims of unspeakable Russian deaths and woundings. Figures of 270,000 Russian casualties have been proposed. Yet the original invasion force consisted only of 190,000 men. Are they all — plus 80,000 others — dead or injured?

The British Broadcasting Corporation decided to do some spade work. They attempted to discern the true number of Russian fatalities. This they did by poring through death notices, funeral announcements, social media and other venues.

What did they discover? They could only identify the names of 16,071 confirmed Russian fatalities.

Francis said that “gender ideology” has created one of the most “dangerous” ideologies in recent history because of the way it blurs the lines between men and women, according to a translation of his remarks to La Nacion by the Catholic News Agency. Francis explained that “all humanity is the tension of differences” and worried about how “gender ideology” had virtually eliminated those differences between men and women.

“Why is it dangerous?” Francis said. “Because it blurs differences and the value of men and women. The question of gender is diluting the differences and making the world the same, all dull, all alike, and that is contrary to the human vocation.”

The document reportedly argues that existing memorials project the “perception that the achievements that society considers noteworthy are those of powerful, older, able-bodied white men.”

According to the Telegraph, the statues of general Arthur Wellesley and admiral Horatio Nelson, hailed for their victories against Napoleon, could fall under this rubric.Both commanders have been accused by activists in the past of enabling colonialism and slavery. The guidance advises authorities and other public institutions to “take action” to set “the right historical narrative,” according to the newspaper.

The holding company for the California-based Silvergate Bank announced on Wednesday that it would begin the process of ending its operations and voluntarily liquidating the bank, ending a long descent for the crypto-focused firm and weeks of speculation about its viability.

With crypto’s rise and traditional banks’ hesitance to work with the volatile sector, Silvergate had established itself as one of the most important partners for the nascent industry, offering key financial services in exchange for soaring profits. By working with crypto’s top companies, from Coinbase to FTX, Silvergate’s share price rose more than 1,500% between November 2019 and November 2021. The bank’s fortunes were tied to the industry, with 90% of its deposit base coming from crypto companies.

Wall Street’s biggest banks took quite a thrashing in the stock market Thursday as investors spooked the turmoil at Silicon Valley Bank and Silvergate Capital dumped financial shares. JPMorgan Chase, Bank of America, Wells Fargo and Morgan Stanley – the four most valued US lenders – saw $55 billion wiped off their combined market capitalization on Thursday, Refinitiv data show.

JPMorgan, the biggest US bank, alone saw a $22 billion tumble in its market value as its stock slid 5.41% to $130.34. Wall Street heavyweight Bank of America lost $16.16 billion as its share price fell 6.20% to $30.54. Wells Fargo and Morgan Stanley saw their market capitalization drop by $10.3 billion and $6.2 billion, respectively. Among other major US banks, Goldman Sachs and Citi also witnessed significant declines in their share prices.

California-based Silicon Valley Bank collapsed on Friday morning after it suffered a bank run and capital crisis. SVB was the second-largest banking failure in US history, yet nobody saw this coming. As recently as Wednesday, all seemed well at the respected bank. Then it surprised investors with news that it needed to raise $2.25billion (£1.875 billion) to shore up its balance sheet, and all hell broke loose.

Terrified depositors and investors raced to pull their money, causing a run on the bank. Yesterday, regulators shut it down before more damage was done. SVB isn’t the only US financial institutions to go to the wall this month. Its collapse came two days after Federal Reserve member bank Silvergate went into liquidation, after racking up huge losses on crypto trading. The big question now is how far the contagion spreads.

Beauchamp reckons Monday will be brutal. “It certainly isn’t wise to stand in the way of the avalanche of selling, which looks unlikely to end soon.”

Riyadh cut ties after Iranian protesters attacked Saudi diplomatic missions in 2016 following the Saudi execution of revered Shiite cleric Nimr al-Nimr - just one in a series of flashpoints between the two longstanding rivals.

Friday's announcement, which follows five days of previously unannounced talks in Beijing and several rounds of dialogue in Iraq and Oman, caps a broader realignment and efforts to ease tensions in the region.

"Following talks, the Islamic Republic of Iran and the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia have agreed to resume diplomatic relations and reopen embassies and missions within two months," said the joint statement, which was published by both countries' official media.

The detente between Saudi Arabia, the world's biggest oil exporter, and Iran, a pariah for Western governments over its nuclear programme, has the potential to reshape relations across a region characterised by turbulence for decades.

Iran and Saudi Arabia support rival sides in several conflict zones including Yemen, where the Huthi rebels are backed by Tehran and Riyadh leads a military coalition supporting the government. The two sides also vie for influence in embattled Syria, Lebanon and Iraq. He also said Tehran, which has backed Damascus during its 12 years of conflict, would join efforts to reconcile Syria and Turkey, which has long supported rebel groups opposed to President Bashar al-Assad.

There has also been a rapprochement between Riyadh and Ankara since the 2018 killing of Saudi journalist and government critic Jamal Khashoggi inside the kingdom's Istanbul consulate. Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has pushed hard to revive ties, a move analysts describe as largely driven by economic considerations.

'I am certain that working together, we will ensure the development of fruitful Russian-Chinese cooperation in all sorts of different areas. We will continue to coordinate joint work on the most important regional and international issues. Xi Jinping was handed a third term as Chinese president on Friday, capping a rise that has seen him become the country's most powerful leader in generations.

China has become an increasingly valuable ally to Russia, importing Russian energy and commodities and softening the impact of western sanctions after the invasion of Ukraine. 'We will see a China more assertive on the global stage, insisting its narrative to be accepted,' Steve Tsang, Director of the SOAS China Institute, told AFP.

'But it is also one that will focus on domestically making it less dependent on the rest of the world, and making the Communist Party the centrepiece of governance, rather than the Chinese Government,' he said. 'It is not a return to the Maoist era, but one that Maoist will feel comfortable in,' Tsang added. 'Not a direction of travel that is good for the rest of the world.'

Western media took a much different angle, with many outlets making obligatory mention of warnings from analysts and officials that China’s real military spending could be much higher than the announced budget. For example the Guardian cited the US Department of Defense as claiming it could be up to two times higher. These outlets do mention that China’s defense budget is still dwarfed by that of the US ($224 billion versus $772 billion), before moving on to talk about the size of China’s navy and infantry, its “militarization” of the South China Sea and, of course, repeating the warnings emanating from Washington DC that “China may invade Taiwan” soon.

It also wants to avoid Europe becoming more militarily involved against China, which would represent a great success for the US. China strives to be firm but also calm and cautious. There is a lot to lose in facing a hostile US, but sitting idly by is not an option. A military competition has begun, and it isn’t going away. Beijing must be strong but also avoid “rocking the boat” too much.