USA - The United States is barreling toward another war in the Middle East. The conflict between Israel and Hamas is rapidly escalating across the region and risks dragging the United States directly into the fray. The recent barrage of ballistic missiles and drones launched by Yemen’s Houthi movement at Israel — coupled with a statement by the group that such attacks will continue — and the continued attacks on US positions in the region show this conflict is expanding fast.

GERMANY - Germany’s Defense Ministry has announced that it will deploy two tank battalions to Lithuania, which will form a new brigade together with NATO’s joint Forward Presence Battlegroup, which is already stationed in the Baltic nation. The new unit, which is expected to come into being in 2025, will be made up of 4,800 military personnel in total. In a statement on Monday, the ministry said that “Tank Battalion 203 and Mechanized Infantry Battalion 122 will be redeployed to Lithuania.” The resultant new tank unit will be named Tank Brigade 42. The additional troops will join the rotating German-led NATO contingent once all the necessary infrastructure has been put in place. There are currently about 1,700 troops from six NATO member states stationed in the Baltic nation; about half of them are German service members.

SWITZERLAND - In the world of high finance, Swiss banks have long been the embodiment of discretion, stability, and immense wealth. However, the winds of change are blowing, and the prospects for Swiss financial institutions appear bleaker by the day. Are these once-mighty banks headed for extinction?

USA - The US government, under Joe Biden, has handed out some $4.1 billion in taxpayer money to promote the LGBT ideology and lifestyle choices around the globe in just three fiscal years, according to a new report. The Epoch Times said its investigation of federal spending, mostly under Joe Biden, revealed that the US has awarded more than 1,100 grants “to fund LGBT-promoting projects round the world.” For example, the LGBT Life Center in Norfolk, Virginia, was handed $1.8 million for a “safe space.” The Epoch Times said, “The federal spending website can be filtered to show entries that include specific keywords. A list of payouts filtered by using the keyword ‘LGBT’ included 1,181 grants, 31 loans, and nine direct payments during the past three fiscal years.”

USA - General David Petraeus was in his office in Manhattan last Friday, following with concern the latest developments in the Israel-Hamas conflict, hours before Israeli infantry and armored forces entered the Gaza Strip in what is being described as the start of the second stage of the war. Petraeus, who has been called the greatest American military commander of the 21st century, found it difficult to grasp the scale of the military blunder that led to Israel being totally surprised by Hamas’ October 7 attack. He expressed disappointment that Israel’s leaders have not drawn up a clear plan for the morning after the war against the terrorist organization – much as the Americans had no comprehensive exit strategy after toppling Saddam Hussein two decades ago.

MIDDLE EAST - A senior Hamas leader has refused to acknowledge that his terror group killed civilians in Israel in the October 7 attack that was carried out one month ago today. Moussa Abu Marzouk, the Deputy Chairman of the Hamas Political Bureau, said that 'women, children and civilians were exempt' from the marauding attacks and that they only targeted conscripts, despite overwhelming evidence to the contrary. Videos filmed by Hamas fighters themselves, as well as other clips, show them shooting unarmed civilians, while the bodies of men, women and children have been recovered from several communities in southern Israel that were attacked.

MIDDLE EAST - Conditions in the Gaza Strip have long been dire, with the territory referred to by some as the world's 'largest open air prison'. Even before the outbreak of war in the wake of Hamas's October 7 terror attack on Israel, half of Palestinians living in Gaza depended on food supplied by the United Nations. But as the territory's 2.3 million people suffer, several hundred millionaires are registered in the coastal Strip.

USA - The Ancient Blame Game: Hating Jews Goes Back Further Than The Word Jew. The Bible repeatedly condemns lying, especially lies meant to harm others. 2 Timothy 3:3-4 talks about humanity becoming “unloving, irreconcilable, malicious gossips, without self-control, brutal, haters of good, treacherous.” Verse one of that chapter says it will get worse as the last days approach.

USA - There is no lengths Representative Rashida Tlaib, Democrat for Michigan, wouldn't stoop to, if she believed it would cause harm to Israel – which brings me to my point. On June 8, 2004, I wrote a syndicated column titled: "Why Hate The Jews? Good Question." The article referenced the question I had asked one of my closest childhood and lifelong friends (who happened to be Jewish), over an outdoor lunch at my favorite kosher deli: "Why do people hate Jews so much?" His answer, "Because we are Jews," had been too succinct to satisfy my inquiring mind.

IRAN - The Iranian regime on Sunday made efforts to drag the China-led BRICS economic coalition and Pope Francis into the Israel-Hamas war, on the side of the Hamas terrorists. Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein Amirabdollahian sent letters to the foreign ministers of the BRICS nations — Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa — asking them to demand a ceasefire in Gaza where Israel is attacking the Hamas terrorist network. Iran was one of six countries invited to join the BRICS coalition in August. The others were Argentina, Egypt, Ethiopia, the United Arab Emirates (UAE), and Saudi Arabia.

Central banks bought 800 tons of gold from January to September this year, the highest on record for the nine-month period, according to the World Gold Council. In its Gold Demand Trends report for the third quarter of the year, the industry group said net buying of bullion by central banks in the first nine months was up 14% year-on-year. According to the World Gold Council’s data, China has been the largest buyer of gold this year as part of its 11-month buying streak. Among other notable buyers are Poland, Singapore, Türkiye, Russia, and India. The increased purchases of gold by emerging economies follow a global trend of central banks moving away from the US dollar as a reserve currency.

USA - The combination of high levels of debt and higher interest rates has pushed the annualized interest cost of government debt past $1 trillion, an analysis from Bloomberg showed Tuesday. This amounts to a doubling of interest costs over the past 19 months, according to Bloomberg. It is the equivalent of 15.9 percent of the Federal budget for fiscal year 2022. Bloomberg Intelligence strategists Ira Jersey and Will Hoffman wrote in a research note. “Besides deficits of over $2 trillion in the foreseeable future, climbing maturities following the increase of issuance from March 2020 will also need to be refinanced.”

GERMANY - As the European Union’s biggest economy wrestles with a persistent slump and a surge in immigration, the specter of German nationalism has returned, leaving citizens more conflicted over their country’s direction than at any point since World War II. Those tensions are rippling through the rest of the EU, too, as it confronts Russian aggression in Ukraine and the turmoil stirred up by Israel’s war with Hamas.

GERMANY - Nearly two-thirds of all German citizens want the country’s federal government to impose a ban on migration from predominantly Muslim nations, a damning survey has revealed. Polling conducted by INSA on behalf of the Bild tabloid newspaper showed that 61 percent of respondents now advocate refusing any more migrants from Islamic countries with many explaining they no longer feel safe in their own country and believe an increasing number of new arrivals despise German society. A majority of voters from every political party except for the German Green Party supported a ban on Muslim immigration. The survey was conducted amid the ongoing pro-Palestine demonstrations witnessed in several German cities following the Hamas terror attack in Israel on October 7 and the retaliatory measures carried out in Gaza by the Israel Defense Forces (IDF).

GERMANY - Thousands of demonstrators took to the streets of Berlin on Saturday demanding an end to Israel’s “genocide” in Gaza. Local authorities have heavily restricted pro-Palestine protests. Some 6,000 people marched in the German capital, the DPA press agency reported, although some leftist groups involved in organizing the rally claimed that more than five times that number took part. Video footage shot by RT showed crowds holding Palestinian flags and placards reading “stop the genocide,” “how many kids have to die?” and “ceasefire now.”