USA - I’d like to tell you a folktale. It’s called “The Emperor’s New 9/11”. Once upon a time there was an Emperor who loved war and military expansionism. He was always searching for new ways to instigate military conflicts without losing the support of the international community or waking up the populace to the fact that they’re just propagandized cogs in the machine of a globe-spanning Empire which uses endless military and economic violence to maintain its unipolar hegemony.

GERMANY - In view of the US presidential elections, Berlin is calling for alignment of interests with the USA. Think tanks have been working on this for months. For the aftermath of the US presidential elections, German Foreign Minister Heiko Maas is calling for a "new beginning in the transatlantic partnership." However, "partnership" should not equate "blind allegiance," Maas declared. "Distinct perspectives" of "Europe" and the USA should be recognized and foreign policy "closer coordinated."

ISRAEL - On Friday evening, President Trump announced that Israel and Sudan have reached an agreement that will lead to establishing normalized relations between the two countries. The deal was finalized in a phone conference between the president, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Sudanese Prime Minister Abdalla Hamdok, and Transitional Council Head Abdel Fattah al-Burhan. At the same time, Trump announced that there are currently five more countries that will be announcing normalization agreements with Israel. In his remarks, the president hinted that Saudi Arabia is considering a similar move. “We have many countries as you know getting ready and I’m also sure you’ll see we also have Saudi Arabia in there very soon,” Trump said from the Oval Office. “I really believe that will happen too. And very good relations with Saudi Arabia. You’ll see something very special.”

USA - California's crazy new COVID Christmas rules… Deciding how many people can come into your home, masks in your home, how many of your family can go to the park, how your dishes need to be served and packed, can only last two hours. And you can only sing if you’re wearing a mask and need to sing below a normal speaking voice. “Mandatory requirements for Gatherings” - Unreal. Meanwhile over in NY, cops can look thru your windows and decide you have many people in your home and get you in trouble.

EUROPE - Protests erupted across Europe last night as thousands of angry demonstrators called on their governments to reconsider a second-round of lockdown restrictions. In Italy, violence was reported in at least two major northern cities, Milan and Turin, as vast crowds protested freedom-limiting restrictions enforced to tackle a second surge in coronavirus cases.

CHINA - When a Chinese Christian, Chen Yu, was caught boldly selling religious publications not authorized by the government, his punishment was a seven-year prison sentence and an approximately $30,000 USD fine, handed down by a court last month. Such steep punishment for promoting and adhering to a religion is all too common in China today. Faith is increasingly under attack in President Xi Jinping’s China. Make no mistake — this is a regime that is deeply afraid of the growth of Christianity.

USA - Right now we are experiencing the calm before the storm. Many Biden supporters believe that a Trump victory would literally be the worst thing that could possibly happen to our country, but at the moment most of them are quite confident that Biden will win. Likewise, many Trump supporters are absolutely convinced that we will plunge into a horrifying socialist abyss if Biden wins, but for now most of them are convinced that the polls are wrong and that Trump will pull out another victory in November. So with just a little over a week until Election Day, most Americans that really care about politics are pacified because they believe that a positive outcome is right around the corner.

USA - In the eyes of much of the world the United States is a potent, yet faltering force, a conflicted nation heading into an election that will either redeem it or tug it farther away from the myths and promise that for generations defined it in capitals from Singapore to Paris and Buenos Aires to Nairobi. The stature and standing of the US have plummeted in recent years, a number of international polls suggest. That trend has been exacerbated this year by what is widely perceived to be a disorderly and ineffectual governmental response to the COVID-19 pandemic, and now by a chaotic electoral process.

ISRAEL - "Today, I am submitting for Cabinet ratification the historic peace agreement with the United Arab Emirates, which has been approved by the Knesset. The Cabinet will also approve sending to the Knesset the agreement on establishing peaceful ties with Bahrain. As you know, over the weekend we also declared an additional normalization agreement, this time with Sudan, which had been an enemy country until a few years ago. It cooperated with Iran in smuggling very dangerous war materiel to Hamas for use against Israel. This change began as the result of our steadfast stand against Iran, as the result of our taking actions against its activity and attempts to smuggle via Sudan, and – of course – as result of the internal changes that have taken place in Sudan, which we welcome. I remind you that in Khartoum, the capital of Sudan, in 1967, the Arab League adopted the three no's – no peace with Israel, no recognition of Israel and no negotiations with Israel. And today Khartoum says – yes to peace with Israel, yes to recognition of Israel and yes to normalization with Israel. Today we are expanding the circle of peace.”

RUSSIA - Vladimir Putin says it’s ‘quite possible to imagine’ a full-blown defense pact between Moscow and Beijing in the near future. Such a deal would transform the geopolitical balance – and be a big headache for the US and NATO. Just over 70 years ago, Stalin and Mao haggled in Moscow to create the short-lived Sino-Soviet treaty. With China’s Communist Revolution still fresh, Beijing turned to the Soviet Union for economic and military support in securing its new state. Ideologically on the same page, the two powers had a common enemy: the United States and its allies. By securing a friendship with China, Stalin ultimately hoped to tilt the balance of the Cold War away from Europe and into Asia, giving him a strategic advantage over NATO. History may be about to repeat itself.

EUROPE - The Eurozone is bust. The deterioration of TARGET2 imbalances have been hardly noticed, but in recent months it has been alarming. Despite official denials over the years that it is a matter of concern, it is increasingly obvious that the national banks of Italy, Spain and other nations with increasing bad debts are hiding them within the TARGET2 system. The first wave of Covid-19, which is leading to bankruptcies throughout the Eurozone, is now being followed by a second wave, which will almost certainly take out a number of important banks, in which case the cross-border euro system will implode.

GERMANY - Deutsche Bank is creating a destructive domino effect that will result in an apocalyptic economic collapse. Deutsche Bank, the second most prominent bank in Europe, the greatest bank in Germany, one of the ten largest banks by assets in the whole world and, evidently, the leading authority for derivatives trading, is caught up in a huge chaos. The International Monetary Fund was the first to warn about it being the biggest net contributor to systemic risks for the global financial system, undoubtedly, the bank’s situation is decisive for the world’s economy. The banking system simply cannot allow Deutsche Bank to fall, otherwise, it will drag along the whole financial system with it, creating a destructive domino effect that will result in a catastrophic economic collapse.

USA - Wikipedia is the most widely used source of information in the world, and a great deal has been written about its impact on public perception of certain topics. Wikipedia shapes both scientific research and real-world economic outcomes, and is the top source of medical information for both doctors and patients. The widespread reliance on Wikipedia would not be a problem if it were a neutral and authoritative source, but earlier this year Wikipedia’s co-founder Larry Sanger declared that “Wikipedia’s ‘NPOV’ (neutral point of view) is dead.” Is Sanger’s statement correct? A 2018 study by Shane Greenstein and Feng Zhu compared levels of political bias in Wikipedia and Encyclopaedia Britannica by quantifying each encyclopaedia’s respective usage of phrases favoured by Democratic or Republican members of US congress. Their study found that Wikipedia articles are more politically biased than those in Encyclopaedia Britannica, as well as being slanted towards Democratic (as opposed to Republican) points of view.

UNITED NATIONS - The decision by Pope Francis to offer his tentative support for civil union laws for same-sex couples was praised Thursday by UN chief Antonio Guterres. A devout worshipper from Catholic Portugal, the former socialist political leader said the cautious papal thumbs-up was “extremely welcome.” “This is a clear demonstration of a fundamental principle, which is the principle of nondiscrimination,” said Guterres in New York during an interview with the Associated Press. “And one of the things that has been very clear in the UN doctrine on this is that non-discrimination is also relevant in the questions of sexual orientation. So this decision of the Pope is, of course, extremely welcome from our perspective.”

VATICAN - Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, who later became Pope Benedict XVI, authored a pastoral letter on the care of homosexual persons that was distributed to the bishops of the Catholic Church in 1986 that noted that St Paul had listed “those who behave in a homosexual fashion among those who shall not enter the kingdom of God.” Pope John Paul II approved the pastoral letter on October 1, 1986. Cardinal Ratzinger had authored it as prefect for the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith. “Although the particular inclination of the homosexual person is not a sin, it is a more or less strong tendency ordered toward an intrinsic moral evil; and thus the inclination itself must be seen as an objective disorder,” said this pastoral letter. “Therefore special concern and pastoral attention should be directed toward those who have this condition, lest they be led to believe that the living out of this orientation in homosexual activity is a morally acceptable option,” said the letter. “It is not.”