USA - Reminiscent of the horror movie, “A Quiet Place” where those who lived in a world overrun by murderous creatures were forced into silence at the peril of their lives, “The Quiet Rooms” has the same ominous ring to it. And with good reason. “Quiet Rooms” are rooms used by schools to seclude a student with “problem behaviors” in a (sometimes) padded cell behind a locked door. Horrifying, right? It’s like solitary confinement, but for children. No, wait. Let me correct that. It IS solitary confinement. For children. As if the statistically proven school to prison pipeline isn’t enough, let’s get a 5-year-old used to being locked in a room as punishment! Sounds like a great idea. If that’s not enough, some school administrators and professionals who implement this practice call it just that, “serving time,” according to a report from the Chicago Tribune titled The Quiet Rooms.

USA - “Doctors put drugs of which they know little into bodies of which they know less for diseases of which they know nothing at all.” Voltaire.

“If I could live my life over again, I would devote it to proving that germs seek their natural habitat, diseased tissue, rather than being the cause of disease.” Rudolf Virchow, father of modern pathology.

USA - A whistleblower with the Transportation Security Administration is sounding the alarm about loosened security at US airports, charging that top TSA officials have prioritized speed over security by reducing the sensitivity of metal detectors, disabling technology on some X-ray machines, issuing orders to keep the baggage conveyor belts moving in certain circumstances and ordering policy changes that result in fewer pat-downs. Jay Brainard, the highest-ranking TSA official in Kansas, has notified the highest reaches of the TSA as well as outside federal regulatory bodies about the matter, but says little is being done. He believes the relaxed security rules that have occurred over the past couple of years are putting US passengers at risk. "My biggest fear is having something happen that costs American lives, and I didn't step up and put a stop to it," Brainard told CNN this week. "It's not a question of if, it's a question of when. We are long overdue for an attack."

AUSTRALIA - Australia is facing a massive bill from unprecedented, deadly fires that have burned an area bigger than Belgium. Insurers have received claims worth A$240m (£126m; $165m) since October, and they expect the number will grow significantly. Medical bills from the fires and smoke haze could also run into the hundreds of millions. And one analysis suggests disruptions caused by the fire and smoke haze could cost Sydney as much as A$50m a day. The bush fires have killed eight people. There appears to be no reprieve in sight, as temperatures are expected to hit 40C on the weekend, stoking fears of more fires. 700 houses have been destroyed by the fires. 2,306 insurance claims have been made up to mid-December. A$240m is the value of those claims.

USA - The Democrats got what they wanted, but in the process they have created deep political fissures that will never heal. Now that President Trump has been impeached by the House, he will eventually be acquitted by the Senate, and so his political career will survive. But far more importantly, it has gotten to the point where nobody can no longer deny that America is at war with itself.

USA - I knew that Americans were dumb, but I didn’t think it was this bad. In the hours after President Trump was impeached by the House of Representatives, thousands of people immediately began wildly celebrating on social media because “Trump is not the president anymore”. But of course that is not true at all. Two-thirds of the Senate will have to vote to convict Trump in order to remove him from office, and at this point that seems exceedingly unlikely. Anyone that has received even the most basic education about the US Constitution should know this, so how is it possible that there are vast hordes of people out there that actually believe that Donald Trump is no longer the president of the United States? This is yet another example that demonstrates how spectacularly our system of public education has failed. This generation has made a mockery of everything that previous generations of Americans worked so hard to build, and our society is literally coming apart at the seams right in front of our eyes.

VATICAN - The pope could resign in 2020, in what would be the final piece of a 900-year-old prophecy marking the end of the world, according to a source close to the Vatican leader. He said in 2013: “I don’t think there’s ever been any doubt that he will resign in 2020. He made clear from the beginning that he regarded Pope Benedict’s (XVI) act as a prophetic act of great modesty and he would have absolutely no problem in doing the same.”

USA - The founding fathers knew that having a [CB] control the currency in the US was not a benefit to the people. The [CB] is a burden on the economy, it does not allow people to thrive, it allows a small portion of the population to reach the top, the majority of the people struggle every single day. The value of currency declines every single day which makes it harder on the people.

VATICAN - Pope Francis presided over the installation of a migrant crucifix in the Vatican Thursday, on which he had a migrant life vest placed on the cross in place of the body of Jesus. The ceremony of the hanging of the new cross took place at the end of a meeting between the pope and a group of 33 migrants that the pontiff had flown over from the Greek island of Lesbos. The life jacket on the cross was recovered adrift in the middle of the Mediterranean Sea last July and is believed to have belonged to a migrant who died at sea. “We are facing another death caused by injustice,” Francis said in his address to the migrants. “Yes, because it is injustice that forces many migrants to leave their lands. It is injustice that forces them to cross deserts and suffer abuse and torture in detention camps. It is injustice that rejects them and makes them die at sea.”

USA - In an attempt to decrease the population of rats in New York City, pest control have managed to create a new generation of “super rats.” According to Jonathan Richardson, from the University of Richmond, although pest control removes most of the rats in a population, the rats that survive the lethal control are genetically more “fit.” Jonathan, who studies urban rats in New York City, has found that the survivors are more likely to have traits that make them able to avoid the onslaught of exposure to rodenticides and traps. These survivors then produce baby rats, which inherit the same helpful traits. Scientists have since identified specific genes in the “super rats” that render common rodenticides ineffective.

USA - Teen Vogue is ringing in the Christmas season with gift recommendations for transgender loved ones that encourage surgery and other forms of body mutilation to treat the psychological condition of gender dysphoria. The online magazine, whose past primary mission was to provide teen girls with makeup tricks and fashion notes, now fancies itself totally “woke” as it blames the Trump administration for whatever misfortune happens to individuals who claim to be uncomfortable with their biological sex.

UK - Six psychologists who resigned from England’s flagship National Health Service (NHS) child transgender clinic have raised concerns over its treatment of children with the mental disorder gender dysphoria, saying that they felt pressured to ignore psychological treatment and begin hormone treatment for minors.

AUSTRALIA - Australia has set a record for its hottest ever day for a second day running after Tuesday's 105.5F (41C) was followed by a searing 107.4F (42C) on Wednesday. The heatwave has added to dangerous fire conditions with warnings in place for most of the country and more than 170 fires burning in New South Wales and Queensland. The Bureau of Meteorology said on Wednesday the new nationally averaged maximum had been reached again, with the two recent records beating the previous of 104.5F (40C) set in January 2013. Australia's most populous state of New South Wales declared a seven-day state of emergency on Thursday as oppressive conditions fanned around 100 wildfires. Around 2,000 firefighters were battling the blazes, half of which remain uncontrolled, with the support of US and Canadian backup teams and personnel from the Australian Defence Force.

USA - The White House on Tuesday denied reports from a Lebanese television channel that its supposed peace plan will include a three-way deal between Israel, the Palestinian Authority and Hamas, the Islamist terror group that rules the Gaza Strip. “Rumors about the content of the Trump Administration peace plan are false,” a senior administration official told The Times of Israel. “We are confident that the so-called source has not seen the plan.” The report — by the pro-Hezbollah Al-Mayadeen — features details that starkly contradict the limited information that Washington has released about the proposal, and that stand at sharp odds with known US and Israeli positions.

UK - Thursday: The state opening of Parliament. The Queen's Speech is the centrepiece of this, when she will read a speech written by ministers setting out the government's programme of legislation for the parliamentary session. A couple of hours after the speech is delivered, MPs will begin debating its contents - a process which usually takes days.

Friday: Depending on how rapidly Boris Johnson wants to move, the debate on the Queen's Speech could continue into Friday. The government will introduce the Withdrawal Agreement Bill to Parliament. MPs in the previous Parliament backed Mr Johnson's bill at its first stage but rejected his plan to fast-track the legislation through Parliament in three days in order to leave the EU by the then Brexit deadline of 31 October. After the debate on the Queen's Speech is concluded, MPs will vote on whether to approve it. Not since 1924 has a government's Queen Speech been defeated.