INDIA - Essential India helps you understand a vast and complicated country that will increasingly shape the future. India has the world’s biggest population and in recent years has had one of its fastest-growing economies with a large and thriving business and tech scene. It is the world’s biggest democracy, an almost miraculous achievement for such a poor and diverse country — even if its politics has grown increasingly authoritarian under Narendra Modi. India is emerging as an important player on the geopolitical stage, in hock neither to China nor America, and as a self-styled leader of the global south.

USA - The ominous trends that we see all around us are taking us somewhere. Needless to say, 2023 was not a good year for our country. Hunger and homelessness have been absolutely exploding, the suicide rate just continues to go even higher, and there is chaos in the streets on an almost nightly basis. It is in this environment that the election of 2024 will happen. I expect election season to add an additional level of strain to our society, and I don’t think that our society will be able to handle it. We are headed for a nightmare, and at this point everyone should be able to see that. When conditions deteriorate, it is often those at the bottom of the economic food chain that feel it first. And right now food banks all over the nation are dealing with a tsunami of hunger… Susannah Morgan, the president of Oregon Food Bank, says that she is literally witnessing “the worst rate of hunger in my career”

CHINA - “More uncertainty and unpredictability”: A forecast for US-China ties in 2024. The most important event that will determine the future of bilateral relations is the US presidential election. The two candidates, if they are indeed President Joe Biden and former President Donald Trump, represent two entirely different futures of US-China relations. While Biden is keen on managing the competition and avoiding confrontation, Trump will potentially bring more uncertainty and unpredictability to bilateral relations.

USA - Award-winning journalist Alex Newman, author of the popular book “Deep State,” is back from the recent COP28 conference in Dubai, UAE. Newman continues to report on the not-so-secret plan to destroy everything in America by pushing scams on the West in energy and education. Let’s start with what Newman calls the “scam” of CO2 reduction. Newman explains, “The thing that really jumped out at me with this whole UN COP28 summit, my big take away… is they were talking about fazing out carbon emissions and fazing out fossil fuels, but that’s just for the Western world. That’s just the United States under Joe Biden.

USA - Globalists and woke leftists often openly boast about their agenda to deconstruct western society and replace it with their own ideological cult. They are not simply in disagreement, they have declared war. They’ve been treating conservatives and patriots as the enemy for quite some time, while we continue to treat them as fellow citizens. They tried to erase all of our freedoms permanently during the COVID panic (which they perpetuated through false information). They then twisted the events of the January 6th protests and declared war on us again. They fired rubber bullets and tear gas into the crowds, got a violent response, and then acted as if the reaction was an “insurrection.”

USA - Democrats in the Colorado Supreme Court ruled last night that President Trump’s name will not be listed on the Colorado ballot in 2024. Ironically, these far-left justices used a post-Civil War Amendment that no Democrats voted for at the time, to block the leading opposition candidate from the ballot. This was not the first time Democrats pulled this trick during a national election for President of the United States. As Randy DeSoto reported at Western Journal back in November – the last time Democrats pulled such a stunt was in the presidential election of 1860, when Republican nominee Abraham Lincoln’s name did not appear on most Southern states’ ballots.

USA - The Satanic Temple has unveiled a new “holiday” display, this time at the Michigan State Capitol. As reported earlier, the group claims that the Satanic altars are meant to promote “religious diversity.” It didn’t take long for a Democrat to kiss it. Samantha Skorka, a Michigan Democrat staffer, posted a photo to Twitter-X of her kissing the Satanic display. She calls it “sexy.” Skorka wrote this on her tweet before later deleting it, “In the name of Satan, I claim the sexy satanic baphomet goat altar at OUR Michigan Capitol. Amen.” When people show you who they are, believe them. Michigan Democrats recently passed legislation allowing abortion up to birth. This may explain the Satan monument on the state grounds.

USA - The AI revolution is here, and it’s changing the world as we know it. Specifically, the world of war. It recently emerged that Israel Defense Forces (IDF) are actively using an AI system named 'Habsora' to identify targets in their conflict with Hamas in Gaza. Commenting on the situation in Gaza and the broader realm of warfare, political sociologist Bianca Baggiarini warned that military forces already employ remote and autonomous systems as "force multipliers" to amplify the effectiveness of their troops and safeguard their soldiers. AI systems, she added, have the potential to enhance soldiers' efficiency and accelerate the pace and lethality of warfare. Although human presence on the battlefield will diminish as AI’s shadow grows, she fears that the technology will contribute to the dehumanization of adversaries and further disconnect wars from the societies on whose behalf they are fought.

JAPAN - Tokyo has sent Patriot missiles to the US in another step toward full remilitarization. Japan has agreed to supply Patriot missiles to the US after ending a ban on military exports imposed under the country’s pacifist constitution in 1947. The move will help shore up Washington’s stockpiles eroded by the ongoing Ukraine conflict. The arms sale to the US, confirmed on Friday in Tokyo, marks Japan’s first export of lethal weaponry since World War II. Japan’s Mitsubishi Heavy Industries manufactures Patriot missiles under license from US defense contractors Lockheed Martin and RTX. Although the Japanese-made interceptor missiles won’t go directly to Kiev, they may enable Washington to send more US-made Patriots to Ukraine. The overturning of Japan’s export ban could pave the way for F-15 fighter jets and other weaponry produced by Japanese companies under US licenses to be sold to Washington, the UK, and other Western allies.

USA - The US has a new diplomatic objective in the Gaza War - to convince Israel to scale back its military operations in coming weeks. This is a crucial test of the Biden administration, and whether it succeeds could help determine the next phase of the war - as well as the president's own political fortunes back home. In public, the American effort to shape and restrain Israel's war has taken the form of advice rather than pressure.

UK - 'We swapped embryos and now we're expecting each other's sons!' Lesbian couple used the same sperm donor to fertilise their eggs but wanted to be biologically connected to both babies... this is how they did it. As nativity stories go, it could hardly be more modern, more brave or more touching. Devoted couple Emily Patrick and Kerry Osborn are pregnant with each other’s babies, and will give birth within weeks of each other. In a pioneering case, the first of its kind known in Britain, the women swapped embryos – both fertilised by the same sperm donor – during IVF treatment. Now Emily, 38, a creative producer, will give birth to a son who is biologically Kerry’s at New Year. School teacher Kerry, 35, will follow in February, giving birth to a little boy grown from Emily’s egg.

IRAN - The US has accused Iran of being behind a drone attack on a chemical tanker in the Indian Ocean. The attack on the Chem Pluto on Saturday resulted in a fire, though no casualties were reported. Though Iran has not commented on the attack, the US military said the 'one-way attack' was delivered by a 'drone fired from Iran.' It is understood to be the first time the US has accused Iran of targeting a ship directly. It is also believed to be the furthest attack undertaken by Iran from its own soil. Yesterday, it accused Iran of backing Houthi rebels in Yemen who have targeted commercial ships in the Red Sea.

ISRAEL - US Secretary of State Antony Blinken asked Wednesday why the world was pressuring the victim of terror, Israel, instead of pressuring the terrorist “aggressor,” Hamas, whose surrender would end the war in Gaza and save the lives of many Palestinian civilians. Blinken was answering questions from reporters in a year-end press conference when he delivered this response on the Gaza war:

EUROPE - Russia invaded Ukraine on February 24, 2022, and since then only one thing has been certain: the rest of Europe is desperate to build military muscle as soon as possible to help counter any further predatory moves by Moscow. Europe must race to ensure it can better defend itself as new military threats could emerge by the end of the decade even as the focus of security ally the US shifts towards the Indo-Pacific, Germany’s defense minister has already warned. Russia was hiking its weapons production considerably to sustain its invasion of Ukraine, while also threatening the Baltic states, Georgia and Moldova, Boris Pistorius was quoted as saying in an interview with Welt am Sonntag last week. “We Europeans must engage more to ensure security on our own continent,” said Pistorius.

USA - Tom Leonard reveals how terrifyingly powerful AI will soon be able to sway voters by exploiting their most private thoughts and fears... as if 2024 wasn't already chaotic enough! His mouth agape with fear and fury, Donald Trump is surrounded and arrested in the street by New York police officers and dragged, kicking and screaming, off to jail. Explosions rock Taiwan as the Chinese invade, financial markets go into freefall and illegal immigrants surge over the US border, plunging the world into crisis – all of it the terrible consequences of Joe Biden winning a second term.