UK - Our elected representatives have always gilded the lily. But today’s politicians are peddling full-fat porkies at a time when the British public might be more ill-informed than at any point in recent history. They tell us that ever-growing taxes on our pay packets and assets are unavoidable – fair, even; that siphoning more from the private sector to fund the public generates growth; that diversity is our strength.

DENMARK - Look at the numbers from Europe, and one country stands out for getting a handle on the endless stream of asylum claims. Denmark has kept its applications remarkably low — around 2,100 in 2024 and just over 1,600 in the first 10 months of 2025 — while neighbors like the UK and France deal with surges that strain resources and communities. That’s no accident. The Danes have built a system that prioritizes their own citizens, making it clear that showing up at the border doesn’t guarantee a free pass.

GERMANY - Germany’s cities are collapsing under a €30 billion deficit in 2025, and even mayors of the neoliberal, pro-mass migration, ‘center right’ party, the Christian Democratic Union, are finally admitting the globalist system they helped create has driven Europe’s strongest economy straight into the wall. The mayor of Essen, a large city in the western part of Germany, recently admitted that almost every single German city is on the brink of bankruptcy, with only a handful managing balanced budgets, BILD reported.

NIGERIA - Yet another kidnapping of young Nigerian women by jihadis of the Islamic State West Africa Province (ISWAP) was reported on Sunday. The wave of violence prompted the government of Bauchi state in Nigeria to close all schools as a precaution, including both government and private institutions. The latest kidnapping victims were 13 girls, between the ages of 15 and 20, who were working on farms in the Askira-Uba area of Borno state. The girls were reportedly taken from the fields while they were harvesting crops. One of the victims escaped and returned to her family, but the whereabouts of the other victims were unknown as of Monday afternoon. Nigeria’s Business Day published an editorial on Sunday calling the school shutdowns a “grim new chapter” in the “long-running battle with insecurity.” “State governments are closing school gates, instead of reinforcing them. This wave of deliberate shutdowns, sweeping across states, is a stark admission that authorities can no longer guarantee the safety of students,” Business Day wrote.

USA - The US has designated abortions on the UK's NHS as a human rights violation. On Tuesday, as part of its annual report on human rights practices in foreign countries, the US state department said state-sponsored abortions would now be considered a human rights breach. Sex change treatments for minors, arrests for hate speech, diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) hiring policies, and the facilitation of mass migration will also be seen as human rights infringements. The move is designed to combat what the Trump administration claimed were “destructive ideologies” it said were promoted by the Biden administration and had “been used to propagate human rights violations”. “President Trump will not allow the mutilation of children, attacks on free speech, and racially discriminatory practices, to go unchecked,” the department wrote on X.

USA - Donald Trump’s demand that Ukraine signs his peace deal by Thursday sparked outrage in some European capitals. Seven foreign ministers from Ukraine, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Norway, Moldova and the Czech Republic wrote an article for France’s Liberation newspaper which shows quite how divorced from reality they have become. With Trump’s deal proposing that Ukraine gives up significant territory to Russia, the foreign ministers used their platform to demand a new Nuremberg-style “Special Tribunal” that would prosecute Russia’s leaders for its war of aggression against Ukraine. Of course, however wrong Russia’s invasion of its neighbour and how terrible its crimes, there is no chance of this happening. The Nuremberg trials were only possible because Nazi Germany was comprehensively defeated and its territory occupied by the Allies. The idea that a “Special Tribunal” could persuade or compel Putin or his commanders to attend their trial for “the crime of aggression” is plainly implausible. It is disturbing how detached from reality seven men and women responsible for the foreign policy of European nations are.

VATICAN - Learning and working is hard, so why bother, when it’s so easy to fake it? Thanks to generative AI, it has never been easier to pretend to have done some work. But we don’t need a crystal ball to predict the consequences. The honest and the diligent lose out, while the lazy and the dishonest get rewarded. But what are the consequences for society of making things easier for cheats and grifters, and more difficult for the talented and hard-working to be recognised? Pope Leo XIV recently spoke poetically about the soul crushing effect of replacing human made art with machine-generated AI slop. “Not everything has to be immediate or predictable. Defend slowness when it serves a purpose, silence when it speaks and difference when evocative”, he told an audience of film makers.

UK - For years, British farmers have warned the nation's food system is broken. The Government insists there is no need for a fuss... Currently, according to Professor Tim Lang, the UK's leading expert on food security, Britain's food system is over-reliant on foreign imports and highly vulnerable to shocks and crises, such as disease outbreaks or geopolitical instability. When the First World War broke out, Britain only had six weeks of food reserves and the government was terrified. Now, that is down to about six days. People blithely assume that we have food stores somewhere for a moment of crisis, but we don't. At the rate we're going, the situation will only worsen. Earlier this month, a report from the All Party Group on Science and Technology warned that if the UK continues to prioritise housing, Net Zero, tree planting and nature restoration, it could lose around a quarter of its productive farmland by 2050. Meanwhile, once-reliable exporting nations are now erecting trade barriers because of Trump-like protectionism.

GERMANY - This year, German Chancellor Friedrich Merz pledged to build Europe’s strongest army – a tall order for a country whose military has undergone years of neglect. The coalition government is hoping a new bill agreed upon last week will help make this a reality, bolstering Germany’s forces in the face of the perceived threat from Russia and a significant shift in US foreign policy. The sweeping new reforms will see Germany attempt to boost its numbers to 260,000 soldiers, up from around 180,000 currently, in addition to an extra 200,000 reservists, by 2035. In the first instance, the drive will focus on voluntary enlistment, with greater incentives for those who sign up, including a monthly starting salary of €2,600 ($3,000) – an increase of €450 from the current level. If the new quotas are not met, the government will have the option of mandatory call-ups, where necessary.

USA - Those of us paying attention noticed that among the illegals flowing over our borders during Biden’s term were thousands — perhaps tens of thousands — of military aged, fit Chinese men. We also took note that no one enters or leaves China without their consent, and the people showing up at our borders didn’t walk across the Pacific. The Biden DHS was eventually forced to grudgingly admit that at least some of those guys just might be members of the Chinese military. They didn’t inform us what they did with them, so we can reasonably believe most, if not all, remain in America and we have no idea of their locations or identities.

RUSSIA - The Russian media is still stoking alarmism about the war, and ready to exploit differences between America and its Nato allies. After months of stagnant progress, President Donald Trump and European leaders seem to be seriously discussing a pathway to peace in Ukraine. Despite disagreements over caps on the size of the Ukrainian military, post-war security guarantees and the status of Donbas, Trump declared “something good just may be happening” after the US-Ukraine summit in Geneva. The potential meeting between Trump and Volodymyr Zelensky later this week will aim to settle these differences; Russia is hoping they won’t. in stark contrast to Trump’s outward optimism, Russia is trying to pour cold water on the prospects for an imminent peace breakthrough. Putin’s aide Yuri Ushakov expressed satisfaction with the “state of affairs on the front” and provided only a vague commitment to considering diplomatic solutions. More pointedly, he dismissed Europe’s counter proposal to Trump’s plan, a new 19-point peace plan, as “not constructive at all.”

CHINA - China’s military has warned the world that it is ready for war, releasing a fiery propaganda video, as tensions with Japan continue to rise. The video, titled “If war breaks out today, this is my response”, was made by the People’s Liberation Army Rocket Force, the military branch responsible for all missiles, and includes dramatic clips of fighter jets and warships. The provocative footage was published just two weeks after Japan’s prime minister Sanae Takaichi said that a Chinese attack against Taiwan could trigger a military response from Japan.

ETHIOPIA - A massive volcano has erupted in northeastern Ethiopia, releasing a large ash plume that is heading towards the Middle East, including Yemen and Oman. No eruptions have been recorded at the volcano in 10,000 years, according to officials and experts. It has been described as one of the most extraordinary volcanic awakenings in the region’s recorded history.

NIGERIA - Extremist violence and mass kidnappings push hunger to starvation levels, the World Food Programme warns. Famine conditions are re-emerging in parts of northern Nigeria for the first time in a decade amid a surge in extremist violence, the World Food Programme (WFP) has warned. Around 15,000 people in Borno State will face “catastrophic hunger” during the 2026 lean season when the harvest is exhausted, according to a new report from Cadre Harmonisé, the West African food security monitor backed by the UN. It is the most severe classification of hunger on the five-phase scale used by the organisation to monitor food insecurity and equates to famine conditions.

USA - In recent years, a significant and surprisingly broad phenomenon has emerged: a quiet revival of faith among young people in both the United States and the United Kingdom. At the same time, a parallel rediscovery of God is taking place among many leading intellectuals. Together, these two trends deserve careful attention and serious reflection. Richard Dawkins, the father of New Atheism has not converted, but he has retreated. Dawkins now describes himself as a “cultural Christian,” openly worried that abandoning the Christian tradition will create a dangerous ideological and religious vacuum.