USA - Hundreds of migrants and their children seeking to enter the US from Mexico are arriving with illnesses, forcing US Customs and Border Protection to seek additional medical assistance and boost medical screenings, the agency disclosed Monday. Between December 22 and Sunday, the agency reported 451 cases referred to doctors or other providers, including 259 children. Among the children, half of the cases involved kids under the age of 5. The ill migrants have been arriving with all kinds of ailments, many with flu or pneumonia that can be particularly pervasive and dangerous this time of year. Seventeen migrants have been hospitalized, including six children, according to the agency.

ISRAEL - Israel announces that it is officially leaving UNESCO. “Israel will not be part of a body that continually rewrites history, including by erasing the Jewish connection to Jerusalem,” Israeli Ambassador to the United Nations Danny Danon told JNS. “UNESCO is manipulated by Israel’s enemies and continually singles out the Jewish state for condemnation.”

BELGIAN - A ban on kosher slaughter in Belgium’s Flanders region will take effect on Tuesday after a law prohibiting animal slaughter was passed last year in the local parliament. “That provinces within Belgium - the law-making capital of Europe - have passed this type of anti-religious measure is an affront to the European values we all hold so dear,” said Pinchas Goldschmidt, president of the Conference of European Rabbis and Moscow’s chief rabbi. “Time and again, the Jewish community is told by senior European Union officials that there is no Europe without the Jews, [but] these bans undermine those statements and put Jewish life at risk,” he continued. Additionally, slaughter in accordance with Islamic law will be banned under the new law.

GERMANY - In 2019 Germany will assume greater international responsibility and must stand up for its convictions, Angela Merkel has vowed in an annual address. The chancellor said old certainties about international cooperation had "come under pressure", alluding to strained US-German relations.

GERMANY - Germany’s upstart far-right party, the Alternative for Germany (AfD), is getting the hang of being the main opposition party. But with its volley of queries, mainly about security and migration, experts say it isn’t becoming more professional. The AfD passed the 5-percent threshold for representation in the national parliament for the first time in last year’s election. With 12.6 percent of the vote, it became the largest party in opposition to the grand coalition of the two mainstream parties, the Christian Democrats and the Social Democrats.

EUROPE - When it comes to military spending, European Union leaders talk Europe but think nationally. More than a year since its inception, the grand plan to coordinate and integrate national armies has made very little progress. The Permanent Structured Cooperation, or PESCO, was agreed last year to eventually enable the EU to manage its own defense with integrated forces and weapons systems, but military experts say the bloc is still far from achieving that goal.

GERMANY - Parties that oppose immigration are reaching out to a community concerned about anti-Semitism among Muslim extremists. Emanuel Bernhard Krauskopf’s trips to his synagogue in the German capital have become an awkward affair. The reason: Mr Krauskopf and about 30 others recently founded a Jewish chapter of the Alternative for Germany, or AfD, an anti-immigrant party that is the largest opposition group in parliament - one whose members include people accused of anti-Semitism, right-wing extremists and others on the political fringe.

MIDDLE EAST - A military drill between six Red Sea countries was launched in Saudi Arabia on Sunday, according to the kingdom’s official SPA news agency. The Red Wave 1 exercise brings together naval forces from Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Jordan, Sudan, Yemen and Djibouti. Observers from Somalia are also taking part in the drill. “The exercise aims to strengthen maritime security of the countries bordering the Red Sea, protect territorial waters, enhance military cooperation and exchange combat expertise,” commander of Saudi Arabia’s Western Fleet, Major-General Saqr bin Mohammed al-Harbi, said.

NIGERIA - Boko Haram has launched a series of attacks in north-east Nigeria, hoisting its flags over several towns and overrunning a multinational military base. Militants from Islamic State West Africa Province, a faction of Boko Haram that split off in 2016, have taken over the former commercial town of Baga near the border with Chad, and seized the nearby multinational joint taskforce base (MNJTF), in a show of force less than two months before Nigeria’s president, Muhammadu Buhari, seeks reelection.

USA - The US Food and Drug Administration approved a new 6-1 vaccine that is supposed to prevent against six illnesses. Sanofi, the maker of what is being called Vaxelis, partnered with pharmaceutical giant Merck on the pediatric super-vaccine. Vaxelis is intended for children 6-months to 4-years in age. Sanofi says the vaccine prevents poliomyelitis, hepatitis B, pertussis, tetanus, diphtheria, and diseases related to haemophilus influenzae type B. The news immediately prompted concern from groups that aim to improve vaccine safety. Many believe that a 6 in 1 shot is too heavy for a small baby. Additionally, when things go wrong, it is difficult to determine what caused the issue.

GERMANY - More than half of Germany’s small and medium-sized enterprises think Europe’s biggest economy could contract next year, hobbled by slowing global growth, trade disputes and a stuttering auto sector. Almost 53 percent of so-called “Mittelstand” companies surveyed by the BVMW industry association fear that a recession could strike in the next 12 months, the group said Friday. A disorderly UK exit from the European Union is also a threat.

USA - President Donald Trump heralded “big” trade progress from a long Saturday call with Chinese President Xi Jinping. “Just had a long and very good call with President Xi of China. Deal is moving along very well,” said Trump. “If made, it will be very comprehensive, covering all subjects, areas, and points of dispute. Big progress being made!” President’s Trump and Xi spoke on the phone ahead of a December 1 meeting at the G20 summit in Argentina. At the time Trump refused to relent on tariffs and demanded China halt unfair trading practices and theft of US intellectual property. During their G20 meeting Trump and Xi agreed to a temporary tariff truce. China agreed to buy more in US goods and to participate in 90 days of focused trade talks.

ISRAEL - Two Israeli ministers have announced their split from the religious-nationalist Jewish Home party and have set up a new right-wing faction that they say will be a partnership between secular and religious politicians. Naftali Bennett, the minister of education, and Ayelet Shaked, the justice minister, announced their new party, Hayemin Hehadash or New Right, in a news conference in Tel Aviv on Sunday and vowed to take votes away from Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's right-wing Likud party. According to The Jerusalem Post, the New Right will alternate between religious and secular candidates on its list. "I want to be very very clear," he said. "The New Right party is right-wing, no buts and no sort-ofs. In favour of the Land of Israel without compromise, against a Palestinian state, period."

JAPAN - Japan is set to abandon its pacifist past and begin a long and dangerous road to militarization and potential confrontation with its neighbors, according to recently published defense spending documents. Following the end of World War II, the United States military occupied Japan and imposed on the country a unique constitution which on the face of it, renounced war for good. Article 9 of the Constitution disallows Japan from maintaining a military force and outlaws the use of force in settling international disputes. In April of this year, Reuters reported that Beijing’s military defense spending far outpaced that of Japan’s by approximately three times as much. Evidently, it did not take too long for Tokyo to get the memo and decide it was time to boost its spending plans. It pays to note that Prime Minister Abe’s grandfather was, as one Chinese museum described, a “Class-A-war criminal.” It is in his grandfather’s image and legacy that Abe has pursued such a redrawing of the Japanese constitution.

SWEDEN - International security adviser Olle Fjordgren sees Sweden as a runaway freight train heading for a rock wall. “We have basically given up and the criminals have seized power. Right now we have nothing to oppose and I can’t see that we could reverse the development,” he tells news blog Ingrid & Maria. Already 2013, Sweden was in a low-intensity civil war which the criminals were winning, according to Fjordgren. Now, five years later, they have won in many areas that he believes are rightly called no-go zones. Political unwillingness to admit how bad things are, in combination with inability and ignorance, has led to Sweden being very close to becoming a failed state.