General news updates for this morning. 

High numbers of refugees continue to come through Greece, Turkey, and the Mediterranean – numbers remain unusually high despite the winter weather. 

Ground has been broken on a number of new NATO bases across Europe in response to the increasingly unstable political situation. Bases are now under construction near Kosice (Slovakia), Sirnak (Turkey), and in southern Lithuania. The latter base is being constructed entirely by American contractors, at a cost of roughly $20bn. 

China has also broken ground of a new military base of its own in Djibouti. The base is rumoured to have been financed by the profits from China’s latest contraction of supply in the rare earth metals industry, over which they exercise a powerful monopoly.

That's all for now, folks!