RUSSIA - Russia has sent supersonic bombers capable of carrying nukes to a new military base it is setting up in the Caribbean, it has been claimed. Kremlin plans to establish a base on islands belonging to Venezuela were first reported earlier this month amid reports Moscow had struck a deal with the cash-strapped South American nation. Venezuela’s socialist president Nicolas Maduro did not object to the proposals, according to Russian newspaper Nezavisimaya Gazeta. The deployment will represent one of the largest postings of the Russian military in the region since the Cuban Missile Crisis in 1962. Maduro and his left-wing administration has an acrimonious relationship with Washington.

USA - The multinational corporate business model of outsourcing and offshoring Americans’ jobs overseas to cheap labor foreign countries is responsible for General Motors’ (GM) recently announced mass layoffs of American workers, a trade analyst says. Coalition for a Prosperous America Research Director Jeff Ferry details in new analysis that the recent announcement by GM to lay off 14,700 workers in North America — including 3,300 American factory workers — is the end result of the corporation’s outsourcing business model. In 2019, GM expects to stop production at four American plants, including Detroit-Hamtramck and Warren Transmission in Michigan, Lordstown Assembly in Ohio, and Baltimore Operations in Maryland. This comes after GM laid off about 1,500 American workers in Lordstown earlier this year while their Mexico production remained unaffected.

IRAQ - Iraqi lawmakers have demanded US forces leave the country in the wake of a surprise visit by Donald Trump, which politicians denounced as arrogant and a violation of Iraqi sovereignty. Politicians from both blocs of Iraq’s divided parliament called for a vote to expel US troops and promised to schedule an extraordinary session to debate the matter. “Parliament must clearly and urgently express its view about the ongoing American violations of Iraqi sovereignty,” said Salam al-Shimiri, a lawmaker loyal to the populist cleric Moqtada al-Sadr. Trump, making his first presidential visit to troops in a troubled region on Wednesday, said he had no plans to withdraw the 5,200 US forces in the country.

EUROPE - The European Parliament is attempting to stamp out the use of words such as “mankind” and “manpower” and have them replaced with more gender neutral terms such as “humanity” and “staff”. Officials and MEPs in the parliament, which has seats in Brussels and Strasbourg, have been sent a guidebook on using gender-neutral language in communications, EU legislation and interpretation. It calls on them to avoid the “generic use of man”. “Gender-neutral or gender-inclusive language is more than a matter of political correctness,” the guidebook reads, “Language powerfully reflects and influences attitudes, behaviour and perceptions.” “Political leaders” should be preferred to “statesmen”…

AUSTRALIA - Australia is suffering under an extreme heatwave that has rarely been seen in the world - with forecast temperatures set to exceed 50C later today and experts claim that the worst is still to come. Australia, typically a popular Christmas getaway from British holidaymakers seeking the sun, is experiencing an extreme and dangerous heatwave.

USA - Since I last wrote about the bipartisan shrieking, hysterical reaction to Trump’s planned military withdrawal from Syria the other day, it hasn’t gotten better, it’s gotten worse. I’m having a hard time even picking out individual bits of the collective freakout from the political/media class to point at, because doing so would diminish the frenetic white noise of the paranoid, conspiratorial, fearmongering establishment reaction to the possibility of a few thousands troops being pulled back from a territory they were illegally occupying.

USA - President Trump on Monday criticized outgoing Defense Secretary James Mattis, claiming he doesn't see countries that "take total advantage of the US" as "a problem." But "I DO, and it is being fixed," Trump wrote in a tweet. Trump wrote in a series of tweets that he appreciates US alliances but claimed that "many of these same countries take advantage of their friendship with the United States" and that the US subsidizes the militaries of those countries.

USA - Even CNBC’s Jim Cramer Agrees! – Fed Chair Powell “Trump’s Worst Nightmare” — Who... Raises Rates w/Dow Down 12% in 3 Months? Since October The Fed has single-handedly dismantled the US economy. The Trump tax cuts at year end 2017 set the economy on fire. The US stock markets set numerous records. So the Fed had to step in and kill the economy or Trump might get re-elected in 2020! The Fed announced on Wednesday afternoon that they will increase rates and will also increase rates next year. The Dow immediately dropped another 720 points. The DOW was down at one point by 894 points! The Dow Jones dropped 3,500 points since the Fed’s Jerome Powell’s insidious comments in early October to continue to increase interest rates. The stock market has lost MORE THAN $4 trillion in value since then. On Wednesday it lost another trillion or so.

GERMANY - Washington's decision to drop out of the INF has fueled speculation about the return of a full-blown, Cold-War style nuclear arms race, as Russia has reflexively threatened to build up its tactical defenses along Europe's periphery in the face of what's expected to be a buildup of American intermediate-range arms. But whatever happens between the two nuclear superpowers, Germany wants no part of it. German Foreign Minister Heiko Maas warned this week that the US better not be thinking about stationing its intermediate-range missiles in Germany - or anywhere in Europe, for that matter. For the last 30 years, the treaty has prohibited stationing intermediate-range arms in Europe. Any push to change that would almost certainly be met with "widespread resistance" in Germany, Maas said, so as to avoid a scenario where Europe is put in the middle of a tug-of-war between Russia and the US.

UK - Today, total international trade in arms is worth about $100 billion a year, according to Pieter Wezemen, senior researcher at the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (Sipri). With military power as the backbone of foreign policy and the central strategy for economic gains, the volume of international transfers of major weapons has been growing steadily over the past 15 years. Through the global arms trade, democracy continues to be undermined and any real chance of working towards global security and peace is diminishing. Uruguayan journalist and novelist Eduardo Galeano writes, "The 20th century, born proclaiming peace and justice, died bathed in blood. It passed on a world much more unjust than the one it inherited. The 21st century, which also arrived heralding peace and justice, is following in its predecessor's footsteps."

ISRAEL - On Christmas Day, Israel launched what Bloomberg described as its first airstrike in Syria since President Trump's "shocking" announcement that he would withdraw all US troops from Syrian territory (to the disgust of US national security officials and every neo-con anywhere). The strike targeted an ammunition depot in the Damascus countryside believed to belong either to Iran's Revolutionary Guard, or its Lebanon-based proxy Hezbollah. In response to the US's decision to withdraw, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said the IDF would "increase efforts" against Tehran’s entrenchment in Syria as a result. Israel reportedly launched six F-16 fighters from Lebanese territory to carry out the strike. With the US pulling out of Syria, it's widely expected that Iran will benefit, as the country has offered consistent support to Syrian President Bashar al-Assad since the civil war began more than six years ago.

USA - Dollar stores such as Dollar General and Dollar Tree (which also owns Family Dollar) are becoming a primary source of food for many families. The chains feed more Americans than Whole Foods, one which isn't surprising when you consider there are 30,000 Dollar General and Dollar Tree stores across the US — outnumbering Walmart's and McDonald's' combined — compared to 446 Whole Foods locations.

EUROPE - Populist Government emerging across the European Union will foil the plans of further European integration Jean-Claude Juncker devised during his leadership of the European Commission, economist Alan Winters claimed. Speaking to Express.co.uk, Prof Winters said: "European integration over the past 40-50 years has had sort of bursts where it got deeper and then periods of retrenchment where states stilled or even retreated.

USA - The US is trying to send a message to Tehran, with its aircraft carrier in the Persian Gulf, that even though it is leaving Syria, this doesn’t mean lifting any pressure on Iran, professor of political science Hamed Mousavi said. A US aircraft carrier entered the Persian Gulf for the first time since 2001 last week accompanied by a fleet of warships in what Washington is calling a “show of force” against Iran.

ISRAEL - Amazingly, the same Germany that prides itself on having learned the lessons of its Nazi past and heralds its deep friendship with Israel at every opportunity in practice supports organizations, in particular in Arab and Muslim states, that disseminate the hatred of Jews and Israel or demonstrate scandalous tolerance for such hatred. This phenomenon is associated primarily with the Palestinian territories but in its broader scope impacts what goes on in schools run by UNRWA, the UN agency for Palestinian refugees, in Arab countries. As a sovereign state, Israel has the right and obligation to raise concerns regarding Berlin’s funding of German bodies that promote the boycott, divestment and sanctions movement, which calls for Israel’s destruction, whether they be a Jewish museum or an international film festival.