UK - Theresa May has left European diplomats in a state of “disbelief” following a series of phone calls to EU leaders in which she made no change to her demands despite her Brexit plan being voted down by a 230-vote margin this week. Senior EU diplomatic sources said that Mrs May’s unchanged stance was “greeted with incredulity” following a call with the German Chancellor Angela Merkel on Thursday night. “It was the same old story - the same set of demands - all unchanged despite the defeat,” said the source with knowledge of the calls. Mrs May is understood to have repeated the same performance in conversations with the French president Emmanuel Macron, the Dutch prime minister Mark Rutte…

UK - The Queen could be asked to block backbench legislation which could frustrate Theresa May's Brexit plans. A senior Government minister confirmed that one option was for the Queen to be asked not to give royal assent to any backbench legislation drawn up by Tory MPs Dominic Grieve or Nick Boles which is given debating time. Any veto would be the first time a Monarch has blocked Parliamentary legislation since Queen Anne vetoed the Scottish Militia Act in 1707 and would set the Queen against John Bercow, the Speaker, who has enabled Mr Grieve's attempts to seize control of the Brexit process to go ahead.

USA - The US commandos careened between grief and anger as Alex Conrad’s flag-draped coffin was hoisted onto the cargo plane. Al-Shabaab militants allied with al Qaeda had killed Staff Sergeant Conrad at a rudimentary outpost that American Green Berets built with help of the Somali army. Now, just as Sergeant Conrad’s comrades were sending him on his final trip home, they were grappling with more bad news. The Somali army had abandoned the outpost hours after the sergeant died.

USA - Imagine sending your son or daughter off to college, only to have him or her return as a “her” or “him” instead. We’re talking about transgenderism, here, and a growing contingent of parents says their formerly normal children are being brainwashed into believing that they’re the opposite gender while away at school – and in some cases are actually getting hormonally and surgically altered without their parents’ knowledge or consent.

USA - A significant reason why a smart TV, or perhaps a new 65-inch 4K smart TV with HDR capability, can be purchased for about $500, is because some manufacturers are harvesting data from users. Vizio’s Chief Technology Officer, Bill Baxter, outlined the strategy to The Verge during the Consumer Electronics Expo in Las Vegas, Nevada last Monday. "This is a cut-throat industry. It's a 6% margin industry," Baxter said. "The greater strategy is I really don't need to make money off of the TV. I need to cover my cost." More specifically, electronic manufacturers like Vizio have figured out that they can sell smart TVs at, or around cost, and concentrate on data harvesting and post-purchase monetization.

USA - With Wall Street titans, tech moguls, and other members of the global financial and political elite set to gather in Davos, Switzerland this week for the annual World Economic Forum, a report published late Sunday found that the planet's richest people saw their fortunes soar by $2.5 billion per day last year as the world's poorest lost wealth. "The economy we have today is fundamentally inhuman." said Paul O'Brien, Oxfam America. Titled "Private Good or Public Wealth?" and conducted by Oxfam, the new analysis found that 26 billionaires now own as much wealth as the world's poorest 3.8 billion people combined. According to Oxfam, the number of billionaires has doubled since the global financial crisis of 2008, even as average families have struggled mightily to recover.

NIGERIA - Jihadists, mainly members of the Islamic State (ISIS/ISIL)-linked Boko Haram, have killed more than 100 soldiers and seized a “huge stock of weapons” during clashes in northeast Nigeria raging since December 26, a coalition of United Nations-affiliated aid agencies reported Friday. Although the ISIS-linked Boko Haram is the most prominent terrorist group in Nigeria, the Muslim Fulani herdsmen have been wreaking havoc in recent months, killing hundreds of people, primarily Christian farmers in the African country’s Middle Belt region. Boko Haram has killed about 30,000 people and forced about two million people to flee their homes since the insurgency began in 2009.

ISRAEL - Amid fears of escalation, hours after Israeli airstrikes destroyed Iranian installations and reportedly killed military personnel in Syria, Iran’s air force chief said Monday the country’s youths were “impatient” to fight a war for “Israel’s disappearance.” “We’re ready for the decisive war that will bring about Israel’s disappearance from the earth. Our young airmen are prepared for the day when Israel will be destroyed,” Brigadier General Aziz Nasirzadeh said, according to an Iranian news site. A former fighter pilot, Nasirzadeh was named Iran’s air chief by Ayatollah Ali Khamenei in August after serving as the acting commander for several months. Israel has long accused Iran of seeking to establish a military presence in Syria that could threaten Israeli security, and attempting to transfer advanced weaponry to the Hezbollah terror group in Lebanon.

CHILE - A strong earthquake has struck near the city of Coquimbo in central Chile resulting in at least two deaths - one in Punitaqui and one in Coquimbo. Both died after suffering heart attacks during the earthquake. It hit at a depth of 53km (33miles), meaning it was relatively shallow. The US Geological Survey said the magnitude of the shake was 6.7 on the Richter Scale. Damage has been reported at several locations, but there was no immediate news of any casualties. The quake was felt strongly in northern Chile, where buildings swayed according to social media reports. According to ONEMI Director Ricardo Toro, more than 200,000 people in the area were suffering power outages.

CANARY ISLANDS - An earthquake measuring 4.2 magnitude struck in the Atlantic between Tenerife and Gran Canaria in the early hours of today. The tectonic activity related to the fault between Tenerife and Gran Canaria is the most probable cause of this earthquake. More information about this earthquake will be provided soon.

USA - An urgent alert to all Americans: Prepare for emergency action in the 3D world. New information has come to light that indicates the “final solution” of the globalist agenda to destroy America and enslave its citizens is drawing near… the orchestrated assault on your mind, your country and your president is approaching its final chapter.

USA - As the partial government shutdown enters its [third] week over a lack of funding for key government agencies including the Department of Homeland Security, Democrats and POTUS Donald Trump appear to be as far apart on the issue that led to it — funding for a border wall — as they were when it began.

USA - House Speaker Nancy Pelosi formally invited President Donald Trump to give his annual State of the Union Address before Congress in a letter on January 3. It’s a formality, really, that befalls all Speakers. The SOTU address is a constitutional requirement, but historically, presidents have delivered them in writing to Congress. On Wednesday, Pelosi wrote the president again to suggest he do just that, all but rescinding her earlier invitation. Why? Well, security concerns, of course. 

USA - Nancy Pelosi reiterated that Democrats will not agree to a border wall… They believe they can make Trump look like the bad guy here and the shutdown can be a long one indeed. They have dug in their heels and it is hard to see how they can back down now without losing face, which is what they are trying to make Trump do. The fact that the wall would be $5.7 billion and one week’s interest bill to keep rolling the debt comes in at $6.7 billion illustrates that this is now just politics and not about pretending $5.7 billion is a lot of money.

USA - It seems that socialism is like an infectious disease that everyone has to get ill of to develop immunity. As Alexander Solzhenitsyn pointed out, “For us in Russia, communism is a dead dog, while for many people in the West, it is still a living lion.” This dead dog, expelled from Russia, acquired a new life in the United States and regained vitality to become a living lion within the Democratic Party.