USA - World War III, cyber-attacks, and economic meltdowns could change life forever; all three scenarios are simmering and ready to explode. Chanukah is underway and Christmas is just a couple of weeks off. Another year will go by the wayside. As we approach December 31, you will hear people chirping on social media that they are glad such a bad year is fading into the rearview mirror and how much they are looking forward to brighter times in 2024. These people are not awake. Don’t get lulled into their fantasyland.

USA - A huge news story basically ignored by the corporate media and little noticed even by the conservative media took place at the end of November. Wall Street seemed not even to notice. A major global oil producer, the United Arab Emirates, abruptly stopped selling its oil in US dollars and is joining forces with the BRICS nations, of Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa to forge ahead into a de-dollarized world. BRICS recently expanded its membership to include the UAE, along with Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Ethiopia, Iran, and Argentina.

UK - Senior British MPs have described the reported move as a snub on Riyadh’s part. Saudi Arabia scrapped plans for Mohammed bin Salman to visit London earlier this month, days before he hosted Russian President Vladimir Putin in Riyadh, the Financial Times reported on Friday, citing UK government officials. London and Riyadh had been in negotiations about a potential visit of the Crown Prince, who is also known as MBS, for months already. UK officials said the two sides had been working towards December 3 as a possible date, but the plans were abruptly shelved last week. Instead, MBS hosted Putin in Riyadh on Wednesday, amid the Russian president’s one-day tour of the region – his first trip to the Middle East since the beginning of the conflict with Ukraine in February 2022.

WALES - A school says banning pupils using mobile phones has improved behaviour and relationships and eradicated cyber bullying through the day. The strict new rule, which has been running for a year, has “definitely improved the school”, said headteacher Daniel Owen. Pupils at Llanidloes High in Powys can use their phones travelling to and from school, but must deposit them in a box at reception when they arrive and collect them when they leave each day. Mr Owen said pupils talk more, are more sociable with each other and the policy was almost universally backed by parents.

DUBAI - More than 90,000 folk gathered in Dubai this week for Cop28, the annual United Nations-sponsored climate change jamboree which is meant to produce agreements to reduce emissions of CO2 and, thereby, mitigate the global rise in temperatures. The fact that Dubai is the business hub of a country (United Arab Emirates) which owes its wealth and influence entirely to fossil fuels — and which is ramping up its output of oil and gas — certainly hasn't deterred thousands of climate activists from flooding in from all over the world to join the jamboree. Some of them were shame-faced enough to point out that, though they had emitted copious amounts of CO2 to get there, they were being ferried around in electric vehicles. They didn't mention that more than 80 per cent of the UAE's electricity is generated by natural gas.

USA - The green energy subsidies in the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) have been justified by the Biden Administration as a booster of US economic growth and jobs. But when the subsidies are tallied and the overall impacts evaluated, the IRA is a job and economic growth killer. Under the IRA, the lion’s share of subsidies will be paid to wind and solar developers. The subsidies will not expire until electric industry carbon emissions fall by at least 75% below 2005 levels, after which they will gradually decrease. Even the most optimistic forecasts prepared by the US Energy Information Administration (EIA) show that this will not occur until at least 2046. Thus, the subsidies for wind and solar will continue unabated for decades.

USA - As part of the WEF’s Great Reset agenda, the head of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) has called on governments worldwide to begin imprisoning members of the public for using too much energy. IMF Managing Director Kristalina Georgieva says nations must impose new carbon taxes to punish citizens for causing “global boiling.” Citizens who refuse to pay the new taxes will be prosecuted and imprisoned. She delivered her threat at the United Nations COP28 climate summit, where other globalist attendees arrived on jets, drove luxury cars, and enjoyed dining on the finest cuts of beef during lavish dinners.

MEXICO - The skies above southeastern Mexico darkened last Tuesday afternoon as miles-long swarms of locusts flooded over Mérida, the capital of the Mexican state of Yucatán. One Latin American newspaper covering the incident quoted the Book of Revelation 9:3, 'And there came out of the smoke locusts upon the earth, and unto them was given power, as the scorpions of the earth have power.' But local officials were less dire, telling reporters that the locusts were expected to finish passing through the city in about two days without endangering local crops.

JAPAN - Thousands of tons of dead fish have washed up on a beach in northern Japan, prompting speculation that the release of treated radioactive water from the Fukushima nuclear plant has wrought havoc on local ecosystems. The sardines and some mackerel washed ashore in Hakodate on Japan's northernmost main island of Hokkaido on Thursday morning, creating an unsettling sliver blanket that covered almost a mile of shoreline.

USA - A website that uses machine-learning to quickly turn innocuous photos of famous and everyday women into realistic deepfake nudes is racking up howls of outrage—and millions of page views. On its now-suspended Twitter page, Deepsukebe referred to itself as an 'AI-leveraged nudifier.' It claims it doesn't save the fake photos it generates, but an 'incentive program' rewards posters who share links of their deepfakes. Users who get enough people to click on them can 'nudify' more pictures faster. (Users can also pay a monthly fee in cryptocurrency to bypass the limit of one picture every two hours.)

VENEZUELA - Dictator Maduro Declares oil-rich Esequibo Region part of Venezuela, appoints military authority for the area – Guyana loses troops in helicopter crash... The world has become a dangerous place, with as much as 55 conflicts in the world, which is a record since the Second World War, according to UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Türk. While the US is involved in multiple military conflicts all over the planet, a new, dangerous one is about to erupt a mere 2 thousand miles from Florida, in the Western Hemisphere zone of primary American influence. There, in the former British colony of Guyana, much like so many other hot-spots around the planet, the territorial dispute is predicated on the massive oil fields discovered in its territorial waters. The way things are going, it won’t be long until the US finds itself involved too.

GERMANY - Boris Pistorius has brushed off criticism that his country is giving Kiev “too little to win and too much to lose”. Germany is doing its best to provide Ukraine with necessary military assistance, German Defense Minister Boris Pistorius has said. He recalled, however, that Berlin and Kiev are not part of the same alliance. Speaking in an interview with German broadcaster ZDF on Tuesday, Pistorius dismissed speculation that Germany is dosing its aid to Ukraine in a bid to avert its defeat by Moscow, but also to prevent Kiev from scoring major wins. “We deliver what we can. The same applies to almost all other allies and partners,” he said, adding that “Germany is not an ally of Ukraine and therefore not in an alliance.”

CHINA - China warned Brussels that sanctions and military aid would not work against Moscow, diplomat Wu Hongbo has said. The European Union must avoid driving Russia “into a corner” and sit down to talks with Moscow if it hopes to end the conflict in Ukraine, China’s envoy to Europe insisted on Wednesday. Speaking to the state broadcaster CGTN, Special Representative on European Affairs Wu Hongbo said that he warned his EU counterparts from the outset that “military intervention or sanctions” would not deter Moscow from carrying out its military operation in Ukraine. “They wouldn’t believe us,” Wu said, adding that “since the sanctions did not work at all and the military supplies only added fuel to the fire,” EU officials have approached the Chinese Foreign Ministry, asking Chinese diplomats to “convince [Russian President Vladimir] Putin to put a stop to the conflict.”

USA - House Speaker Mike Johnson, Republican for Louisiana, warned Tuesday night that the United States is engaged in a battle of worldviews and called on Christians to bring the truth about the country’s foundational principles to the younger generation. A group of interfaith elected officials and supporters of the National Association of Christian Lawmakers attended the organization’s annual meeting and awards gala at the Museum of the Bible Tuesday night.

USA - The state of New Mexico is suing Meta, its platforms and CEO Mark Zuckerberg for allegedly allowing its sites to become "a marketplace for predators in search of children upon whom to prey." The lawsuit filed Tuesday by the state's attorney general, Raul Torrez, accuses Instagram and Facebook of becoming a "breeding ground" for predators using the sites to sex-traffic, groom and solicit sexual images from minors.