USA - Just the other day, a homosexual high school teacher in New Jersey was arrested for soliciting sex from one of his underage male students. That same day, it was announced that the Washington, DC, City Council is pushing to legalize prostitution for underage youth. What do these two stories have in common? They both represent just another day in America in 2019.

RUSSIA - The man credited with helping bring about the end of the Cold War doesn't think it's actually over. "Chilly but still a war," Mikhail Gorbachev tells the BBC when he was asked to characterize current relations between Russia and the West. "Look at what's happening — in different places there are skirmishes, there are shootings," says the former Soviet leader. "Aircraft and ships are being sent here, there, and everywhere. This is not the kind of situation we want." More specifically, Gorbachev is worried about all this tension in the context of nuclear weapons.

USA - The liberal media may be happy to proclaim that the sexualization of children is “the future,” but ordinary people aren’t buying it. A video celebrating a crossdressing child has united Twitter in revulsion. We live in a permissive age, but even in 2019 some limits remain intact. Enter ‘Desmond is Amazing’, a 12-year-old New York boy whose appearances at gay pride parades – and even at strip clubs, where he danced for the attention and dollars of grown men – has landed him spots on television and fawning coverage in the pink press. “Desmond Is Amazing is the future and we're here for it,” declared media news site Mashable on Sunday, tweeting a video featuring Desmond describing visiting drag clubs at five years of age, and telling “haters” to “just go away.”

PHILIPPINES - Three lethal earthquakes have rocked in recent weeks wide areas of the southern Philippine island of Mindanao, killing 17, injuring hundreds and dislocating over 140,000. That may be just the front edge of a bigger disaster, Philippine seismologists say, amid official warnings that temblors will continue to jolt the southern Philippines through at least December’s Christmas season. The scientists say the region is now in the grip of an “earthquake swarm” that could last for several months. Indeed, fears are rising that the worst is yet to come, with some seismologists drawing parallels to the country’s deadliest ever earthquake in 1976 in Mindanao, a 7.9 Richter scale temblor that caused a tsunami that killed 8,000 across a 700 kilometer stretch in Mindanao.

USA - California conservatives are leaving the state in droves over what the LA Times describes as their "disenchantment with deep-blue California's liberal political culture," not to mention "high taxes, lukewarm support for local law enforcement, and policies they believe have thrown open the doors to illegal immigration." According to new Census Bureau migration data for 2018, 691,145 Californians left for other states last year, according to the San Jose Mercury News. Between earthquakes, seasonal fires, high taxes, poo-covered streets, the worst homeless crisis in the nation, and transgender summer camp for children as young as four, what's not to love?

EUROPE - The European Union is facing a mounting wave of problems and challenges, is increasingly divided and unable to solve them. From the outside, China and the United States are ramping up pressure on Europe, which feels the objective need to restore a constructive dialogue with Russia. From within, the basic foundations of European unity continue to be attacked by "populists and supporters of authoritarianism."

KUWAIT - Slavery is one of many industries made more efficient by Silicon Valley, and specifically, Facebook-owned Instagram. A new BBC investigation reveals the widespread online sale of human beings in the mideast for domestic labor. The buyers and sellers use services from Instagram, Facebook, Apple, and Google to facilitate slavery transactions. Housekeepers and nannies are purchased and sold as slaves through Instagram, promoted using hashtags, and promoted on other apps in Google Play and Apple's App Store. These workers live their lives in Kuwait mostly behind closed doors, invisible and with no rights to protest abuse by their employer/enslavers.

USA - Women and girls are being sucked into the sex change industry by reckless clinics that give out “testosterone like candy,” says Andrew Sullivan, the sometimes-conservative gay activist. Sullivan’s break from the transgender movement comes after he met with a group of women who have walked away from their teenage claims of being transgender.

USA - Why is the mainstream media being so quiet about all of the seismic activity that has been happening all across the United States? During the last 7 days, there has been an earthquake swarm directly along the New Madrid Fault zone, Kansas and Oklahoma have been hit by a very unusual number of significant quakes, and there have been several sizable seismic events in the vicinity of the Yellowstone supervolcano. But of course the west coast is getting hammered more than anyone else. According to Cal Tech, there have been more than 1000 earthquakes in California and Nevada over the last week, but of course most of them have been very small. Overall, the latest USGS numbers tell us that there have been more than 2,000 earthquakes nationally during the last 7 days, and apparently we aren’t supposed to be alarmed by that. But could it be possible that all of this seismic activity is leading up to something really big?

USA - Pelosi’s proposed resolution authorizes proceedings for an “existing investigation”.

- There is no existing investigation.

- No Committee has been authorized to conduct an impeachment inquiry.

- No Committee has been authorized to conduct any inquiry incidental to an impeachment inquiry.

- The proposed resolution does not authorize any investigation.

The proposed resolution does not make legitimate recent hearings.

Pelosi’s sore losers have been acting lawlessly. Their hearings lack authority. Don’t Fall For Pelosi’s Putsch! The proposed resolution authorizes committees to conduct proceedings for an existing inquiry. The resolution does not authorize any committee to conduct an inquiry. To date, no committee has been authorized to conduct any investigation.

USA - Nancy Pelosi’s Coup Resolution against President Trump Undermines the Constitution. The House of Representatives’ impeachment resolution vote this week endorses an abusive process that rolls over the rights of President Trump and undermines the rule of law. This was no impeachment resolution – it was a coup resolution. This coup attack was corruptly formed and corruptly pursued. The US Senate should rule out a trial on any so-called impeachment arising from the Pelosi-Schiff abuse of the US Constitution.

GERMANY - A city in eastern Germany has declared a "Nazi emergency", saying it has a serious problem with the far right. Dresden, the capital of Saxony, has long been viewed as a bastion of the far-right and is the birthplace of the anti-Islam Pegida movement. Councillors in the city - a contender for the 2025 European Capital of Culture - have now approved a resolution saying more needs to be done to tackle the issue. But opponents say it goes too far. Pegida supporters say people need to "wake up" to the threat of Islamist extremists. They want Germany to curb immigration and accuse the authorities of failing to enforce existing laws. The movement has spurred large counter-rallies in the city.

USA - The federal government's outstanding public debt has surpassed $23 trillion for the first time in history, according to data from the Treasury Department released on Friday. Growing budget deficits have added to the nation's debt at a speedy rate since President Trump took office. The debt has grown some 16 percent since Trump's inauguration, when it stood at $19.9 trillion. It passed $22 trillion for the first time just 10 months ago. “Reaching $23 trillion in debt on Halloween is a scary milestone for our economy and the next generation, but Washington shows no fear," said Michael A Peterson, CEO of the fiscally conservative Peter G Peterson Foundation. "Piling on debt like this is especially unwise and unnecessary in a strong economy," he added.

MIDDLE EAST - As the last of the Middle Eastern summer fades away, is the region slipping into a new Arab spring? In Iraq, demonstrators are being shot dead in the streets. In Lebanon, protesters have paralysed the country and seem set to bring down the government of Prime Minister Saad al-Hariri. In recent weeks the Egyptian security forces crushed attempts to protest against the police state of President Abdul Fattah al-Sisi.

GERMANY - Anti-immigrant populists beat Angela Merkel’s Christian Democrats (CDU) to second place in an election in the east German state of Thuringia yesterday, building spectacularly on their steady momentum since first entering the Bundestag two years ago. According to exit polls, the Alternative für Deutschland (AfD) took nearly 24% of the vote, beating the centre-right CDU by one percentage point but, as expected, failing to oust incumbent leftwingers Die Linke. The AfD more than doubled its share of the vote. Despite that, it has no chance of entering power yet, as other parties have ruled out joining it in a coalition. But the party’s national standing is boosted by the result, which was closely watched in Berlin, as is the status of its state leader Björn Höcke, considered Germany’s most controversial politician, who has been accused of stoking hatred with anti-Jewish rhetoric.