But even more concerning is that we're seeing authoritarian governments jumping onto the bandwagon, knowing that they can now use the banner of "fake news" to censor all sorts of content they don't like. A few weeks ago, China announced that it was ramping up internet surveillance efforts to "combat fake news," and now Iran appears to be doing the same thing.

The Iranian government has decided that in order to crack down on "fake news," it's going to expand regulations covering public news channels on the instant messaging app Telegram. As reported by Tasnim News, a hardline news agency affiliated with the Revolutionary Guards, Iranian ICT Minister Mahmoud Vaezi made the announcement at a press conference during the National Conference on Public Service. Vaezi cited the dangers “unofficial news channels” pose in Iran's rural and less developed regions, where fake news and misinformation have gained sizeable audiences.

So, for all of you complaining about fake news - a broad term with no real meaning, and which allows people to claim that anything they dislike, or anything with a small error in it counts as "fake news" - beware that you're basically handing an easy tool of censorship to governments like China and Iran that have long histories of stifling any kind of dissent. "Fake news" isn't necessarily a good thing, but freaking out about it is playing into the hands of censors worldwide.

"He made it very clear during the campaign and as president-elect I've heard him repeat it several times privately, if not publicly.” she continued. Congress passed a law in 1995 mandating that the US embassy be moved to Jerusalem. The law included a waiver allowing the President to postpone the move. Presidents Bill Clinton, George W Bush, and Barack Obama have all exercised this waiver throughout their presidencies, despite promises to move the embassy.

Conway implied that it was a mistake for past presidents not to move the embassy. “It is something that our friend in Israel, a great friend in the Middle East, would appreciate and something that a lot of Jewish-Americans have expressed their preference for," she said. "It is a great move. It is an easy move to do based on how much he talked about that in the debates and in the sound bites.”

During his campaign, Trump was strongly critical of the agreement that saw Iran agree to limits on its nuclear program in exchange for the lifting of international sanctions on its oil industry and finances. In September 2015, the billionaire told a crowd: 'Any commander-in-chief worthy of defending this nation should be prepared to stand up on 20 January 2017 [inauguration day] and rip to shreds this catastrophic deal.' He also called the deal a 'disaster' and 'the worst deal ever negotiated'.  

This has led to panic among US allies in the Gulf, Iranian Defense Minister Hossein Dehghan has claimed. John Brennan, the outgoing director of the CIA, last month warned that Trump's opposition to the Iran deal was the 'height of folly'. 'I think it would be disastrous,' he told the BBC. 'It really would: for one administration to tear up an agreement that a previous administration made would be almost unprecedented.'

He added that it 'could lead to a weapons program inside of Iran that could lead other states in the region to embark on their own programs with military conflict, so I think it would be the height of folly if the next administration were to tear up that agreement.' 

The uptick marks a turning point in defence spending, according to Fenella McGerty, principal analyst at Jane’s, after a “lacklustre” period with budgets  constrained by the aftermath of the financial crash. “Defence spending returned to a healthy rate of growth in 2016, kicking off what we expect to be a decade of stronger global defence spending,” said Ms McGerty. “It should recover to pre-financial crisis levels by 2018.”

Once again this year, the US retained its long-held place as the world’s biggest spender on defence, with an outlay of $622 billion, up 1 percent, more than three times second-placed China, at $191.8 billion, and a 6 percent increase on the previous year. The UK held its third place spot at £53.8 billion, just 0.5 percent higher than 2015’s level.

He said he expected the country’s economy to grow sharply over the next few months before crashing in scenes not witnessed since the inter-war period. Mr Dent predicted: “I think this is going to be a stock market peak of a lifetime followed by a crash very similar to the early 1930s. This happens once in a lifetime.

“I think this is the last rally in this bull market. You can't have stocks keep going up at this rate when earnings are going nowhere.” He said Mr Trump’s many election pledges, primarily creating millions of jobs in the country and kick-starting dying industrial towns, would prove to be his downfall. 

Once his promises go unfulfilled, Mr Dent explained, investors would panic, withdrawing their funds and creating a devastating economic collapse.  The top finance expert also said economic instability in Europe, particularly Italy, could have a knock-on effect in America.

The stock market is up too, as you would expect when you have more optimism. Optimistic business owners invest today because they expect tomorrow to be better. That investment creates jobs and stimulates the economy, creating a self-fulfilling path to prosperity. Individual companies can fail and succeed as usual, but the economy as a whole is likely to do well when optimism is high.

In the ancient world, the big problem was resources, not optimism. You didn’t always have access to raw materials, the right kind of labor, or markets. But in 2016 we can generally find anything we need and move anything to anywhere. The physical element of economics is largely solved. All that matters today is how we think about the economy. That’s the key element.

The EU will establish a logistic hub and explore the creation of a European Medical Corps. They planned the setting up of a nucleus for an EU civilian-military headquarters that, according to Italy's foreign minister, could grow to become a European general staff. These structures could serve NATO, but in the end, are suitable for an EU army.

Berlin's attempt to pit the EU against the USA, by ostentatiously taking a distance to President-Elect Trump, has encountered opposition from the UK and several eastern EU countries. Leading European foreign policy makers called the EU a "superpower" expected to be a "global security provider."

The attempts to gradually shake off US influence and organize an EU military, are being flanked by calls for a "superpower Europe," as EU foreign policy chief, Mogherini formulated it. The EU is facing "increasing competition in the global market," explained Mogherini late last week. We can only succeed, if we "work together... with the full potential of a superpower, in the field of security and defense."

Mogherini, who, until now, has acted in accord with Berlin, was confident that there would be an increasing "demand of Europe" in global policy. "Request for a principled global security provider," for "a superpower that believes in multilateralism and in cooperation. We are a superpower," declared Luxembourg's Foreign Minister Jean Asselborn.

While Rogue One’s trailers did manage to achieve this, I also unconsciously noted that the heroes had more colors than a rainbow.  And when this observation was combined with my previous knowledge of how Hollywood, and particularly Star Wars, was going to force a PC narrative into their movies, Rogue One went back on the “meh” list of movies I’ll probably never get around to watching.

If the multi-ethnic, multi-color Reading-Rainbow-Rebel heroes of Rogue One (headed up by a “strong-independent woman™”, BTW) wasn’t a clue as to how there was going to be a political lecture, a blatant statement by one of Rogue One’s writers, Brett White, was:

“When I look at the ‘Rogue One’ trailers, I see what I want from America. I see a multicultural group standing strong together led by a rebellious and courageous woman. That’s what we are working towards, and what we will continue to work towards no matter what. That’s what America – a land created as a haven for the persecuted, to be able to realize their limitless dreams – was created to be.”