USA - Americans remain strongly supportive of abortion restrictions, despite this summer’s Supreme Court decision overturning a Texas law that mandated that doctors have admitting privileges at a local hospital and that abortion clinics be held to the same standards as other outpatient surgery centers.
USA - The vast majority of Americans believe it is important to appoint justices to the Supreme Court who will apply the Constitution as originally set by the Founders and, in particular, protect religious freedom, according to a new Marist poll, sponsored by the Knights of Columbus. Eight in 10 Americans, 80%, say it is an "immediate priority" or an "important" one "to appoint Supreme Court justices that will interpret the Constitution as it was originally written," according to a statement from the Knights of Columbus.
UK - Institutions of higher education have increasingly become anti-white and make no attempt to hide it. Just last month, a professor at Drexel University tweeted, without repercussions, that his Christmas wish was for white genocide, while students at the University of Pennsylvania decided to remove a portrait of William Shakespeare in place of a photo of an African-American writer in the name of diversity.
SWITZERLAND - Influential business leaders and lawmakers once again descend on the Swiss Alpine resort of Davos next week against a backdrop of rising populism, and early indications suggest they will at least acknowledge the dramatic political shifts of the last twelve months.
USA - The move towards a cashless economy is heavily debated and controversy-prone. Several points have been raised about the negative effects of cashless transactions. In a cashless country, the complete control of transactions, individual use of money, information about public monetary assets, and interest rates are with the nation state and third party providers. An individual’s money is under external control and is subject to external regulations and restrictions. Negative interest rates might become applicable. Also, in a cashless society, individual transactions and incomes become accessible to legitimate parties like police or tax officials, and chances of hacking also increase.
PAKISTAN - Pakistan has successfully tested a submarine cruise missile capable of carrying nuclear warheads amid fears the world is gearing up for another war. The country’s testing of a Babur-3 waterborne nuke comes amid heightening tensions between Pakistan and neighbouring rival, India.
USA - It has only been two weeks since Christmas, and already we are witnessing a stunning bloodbath of store closings. Macy’s shocked the retail industry by announcing that they will be closing about 100 stores. The downward spiral of Sears hit another landmark when it was announced that another 150 Sears and Kmart stores would be shutting down. And we have just learned that The Limited is immediately closing all stores nationwide.
USA - Is the blood of young people a “fountain of youth” that will enable those that can afford the treatments to be able to live much longer lives? No matter how much money someone has, life inevitably ends at some point, but there are some extremely wealthy individuals that want to change all that. Billionaire technology investor Peter Thiel, among others, is very excited about advances that have been made in the field of parabiosis.
USA - President-elect Donald Trump just asked the Department of Homeland Security for a complete report of all of President Barack Obama’s immigration policies — probably with an eye toward reversing many of them. According to Breitbart, Trump expected to use those reports to figure out how to make the United States border more secure. Of course his security plans also include building a wall between the US and Mexico. An exclusive report by Reuters revealed that Trump asked for the documents in order to “assess all assets available for border wall and barrier construction.”
USA - The liberal media have been playing up a report by the Central Intelligence Agency that hackers aligned with the Russian government had allegedly provided Julian Assange with the hacked emails his website WikiLeaks published during the fall, but a former British ambassador to Uzbekistan is going public again to blow the story out of the water.
GERMANY - German politicians have raised concern about thousands of NATO troops and equipment, along with hundreds of tanks, that have been sent to Poland and countries bordering Russia in what has been touted by Washington as “defense against Russian aggression.”
CYPRUS - The leaders of Cyprus are meeting in Geneva for UN-led talks, with optimism that they can reach a settlement to end decades of division. The UN envoy in Geneva said Greek Cypriot leader Nicos Anastasiades and his Turkish Cypriot counterpart Mustafa Akinci "really want to make this work". Previous attempts at reunifying the island have failed. The aim is to create some kind of united but federal Cyprus where power is shared between the two communities. Cyprus has been split since Turkish troops invaded in 1974, following an Athens-inspired coup by Greek Cypriots seeking union with Greece. The northern third of the island is inhabited by Turkish Cypriots and the southern two-thirds by Greek Cypriots. Talks have already been going on for some 19 months and significant stumbling blocks remain.
USA - US President-elect Donald Trump has hit back at Meryl Streep's criticism of him as she received a lifetime achievement award at the Golden Globes. He tweeted: "Meryl Streep, one of the most overrated actresses in Hollywood, doesn't know me but attacked last night at the Golden Globes. She is a Hillary flunky who lost big," Mr Trump added of the three-time Oscar-winning actress. She said: "When the powerful use their position to bully others we all lose."
USA - In the last few weeks, we have heard so much news about alleged Russian hacks of DNC and Podesta emails that it isn’t even news any more. The only reason it appears to be news is that it continues to have front-page position in the orthodox media even though the basic story is old and unchanged.
USA - After Hillary Clinton was defeated in the US presidential election the relevant powers launched a campaign to delegitimize the President-elect Donald Trump. The ultimate aim of the cabal is to kick him out of office and have a reliable replacement, like the Vice-President elect Pence, take over. Should that not be possible it is hoped that the delegitimization will make it impossible for Trump to change major policy trajectories especially in foreign policy.