USA - For decades, the mainstream media in the United States was accustomed to being able to tell the American people what to think. Unfortunately for them, a whole lot of Americans are starting to break free from that paradigm and think for themselves. The mainstream media doesn’t really want to talk about the fact that disarming the population has resulted in some of the most horrific massacres in human history.

CANADA - A video of a golden eagle snatching a child in Canada that has gone viral online was an elaborate hoax aimed at testing the skills of the clipmakers. The video shows the bird briefly lifting the child in a Montreal park before dropping him unharmed. Nearly 17 million people have watched the video on YouTube in three days. But a digital training centre in Montreal later told the BBC that the clip was made by its students as part of a degree course.

GERMANY - It is becoming clear that Germany intends to be the EU’s major political as well as economic power, and to dominate European governance to favour Germany’s privileged position as the global economic order changes. Ordinary citizens of other countries in Europe may refuse to comply. Germany, which is more than any other state the ultimate author of the euro-crisis in driving through a system of wage repression at home and capital relaxation abroad, has also been the principal engineer of the attempts to make the weakest pay for it. In that sense, the hour of a new European hegemon has arrived. With it, has appeared the first unabashed manifesto of German paramountcy in the Union.

USA - The ‘Connecticut Shooter’ Adam Lanza has now been reported by mainstream media to indeed be taking the violence-linked anti-psychotic drug known as Fanapt, a prediction I [investigative journalist Anthony Gucciardi] made after the news of the shooting broke. And as I explained in my previous article regarding this drug by name, Fanapt has a very disturbing history of FDA testing and approval. It also has a long line of side effects that echo reports that drugs of this nature ultimately lead to suicidal behavior and increased overall aggression — side effects covered up by Big Pharma corporate scientists.

UK - In a recent speech at the Economic Club of New York, Bank of England Governor Mervyn King predicted a continuation of currency wars next year. He explains, “I do think 2013 could be a challenging year in which we will, in fact, see a number of countries trying to push down their exchange rates. That does lead to concerns. Will other countries react in kind? What will happen? The policies pursued by countries for domestic purposes are leading to tension collectively.” He also adds, “There are limits to how far monetary policy can be effective in the very long run shifting spending for the future to today.” Over the past six years, the maestros of the printing presses have injected the financial system with roughly $11 trillion and show no signs of slowing down.

UK/EUROPE - Britain will be expected to plan national defence with the rest of the European Union after David Cameron agreed to accelerate joint military operations. Under a deal reached in Brussels yesterday, leaders of all 27 EU countries promised to “strengthen” Europe’s ability to deploy troops “rapidly and effectively” in any future crisis. They committed to “systematically considering cooperation” across Europe whenever EU member states begin drawing up their national defence plans. However, the Prime Minister immediately faced a backlash from his own Conservative MPs, who warned it was the first step to creating a European army.

BERLIN, GERMANY - An Italian judge has convicted Deutsche Bank of fraud, as the bank struggles to save its reputation amid widening probes over tax evasion and rate-fixing after the departure of its former CEO Josef Ackermann. Deutsche Bank was convicted together with US giant JP Morgan Chase, Switzerland's UBS and a German-Irish bank, Depfa, for their role in overseeing fraud by their bankers in the sale of interest rate bets to the city of Milan. About €90 million are to be seized from the four banks, who will also have to pay €1 million each in fines. The US Senate named the German bank alongside Goldman Sachs as the two institutions that played a “key role” in the financial crisis.

USA - Regulators with the FDA have released a preliminary report that suggests they will soon give the go-ahead to a team of scientists who’ve created a sci-fi “frankenfish.” The fish, a hybrid of the Pacific Chinook salmon and a ray-finned creature called the eelpout, is engineered to grow twice as normal as traditional salmon. Once the frankenfish is approved for good, AquaBounty will be able to offer meatier fish able to feed more people. “In all other respects,” the company says the AquAdvantage fish is “identical to other Atlantic salmon.” The AquAdvantage "will not have any significant impacts on the quality of the human environment of the United States,” the FDA wrote, noting additionally that the fish is unlikely to harm populations of natural salmon.

SYRIA - The chemical warfare threat looming over Syria’s civil war and its neighbors has taken an epic turn with the announcement by Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov Saturday, December 22, that “the Syrian government has consolidated its chemical weapons in one or two locations amid a rebel onslaught and they are under control for the time being.” He added that Russia, “which has military advisers training Syria’s military, has kept close watch over its chemical arsenal.” DEBKAfile’s military and intelligence sources report: The Russian foreign minister’s statement was a message to Washington that the transfer of Syria’s weapons of mass destruction to one or two protected sites was under Russian control.

VATICAN - Pope Benedict XVI has weighed in on a heated debate over gay marriage, criticising new concepts of the traditional family and warning that mankind itself was at stake. "In the fight for the family, the very notion of being – of what being human really means – is being called into question," the Pope said in Italian during an end-of-year speech.

USA - Now that House Speaker John Boehner's "Plan B" for addressing the "fiscal cliff" has crashed and burned, the top US Republican appears to have two remaining options - wash his hands of the entire matter or negotiate a compromise with Democrats that could abandon scores of his fellow Republicans.

USA - Friday could be a tense day for markets, as a resolution to the "fiscal cliff" appears less likely in the final trading days of the year. Stock futures fell sharply Thursday evening after House Speaker John Boehner said he failed to mount support for his "Plan B" version of a bill that would raise taxes only on families earning more than $1 million, a plan already opposed by the White House. GOP leaders said the House would not take up any other votes until after Christmas, meaning the fiscal cliff talks could now count down to the new year's deadline or later. Stocks so far have been tilting toward a positive resolution of the "fiscal cliff," but anxiety is rising that the talks between Congress and the White House could fail.

BERLIN, GERMANY/PARIS, FRANCE - German government advisors are pleading for the creation of a joint German-French air force. In light of an alleged "deterioration of EU military efficiency," the "two major nations" in Europe are "required to take the leadership," according to a position paper published by the German Institute for International and Security Affairs (SWP).

ATHENS, GREECE/BERLIN, GERMANY - The German austerity dictate is driving Greece - even after the most recent financial "bail-out" operations - deeper into the economic and social abyss. Economically, the country is still in a "free fall," according to the German Institute for Economic Research.

EUROPE - European kindergartens and schools may ban children's books and fairy tales that depict the traditional family. This is a request of the European Parliament Committee on Women's Rights. According to the committee, fairy tales should talk about sexual diversity. Norwegian experts believe that children benefit from watching porn.