ARGENTINA - “Argentina is limiting exports of corn and wheat in a push to tackle domestic food inflation. It’s a resolution that the food industry considers necessary to provide predictability. And to safeguard what Argentines need for their own consumption,” Agriculture Minister Julian Dominguez said in a statement this week, as cited by Bloomberg. Argentina is a key global supplier of beef as well as the world's top exporter of processed soy, the second-largest exporter of corn, and a major wheat producer. This means that any change to the volume of its agriculture exports may affect global markets and food supply chains, which have already suffered amid the Covid-19 pandemic, resulting in food prices rising globally.

SA - In addition to the over 2 dozen Air Force personnel who were kicked out, 103 US Marines were discharged on Thursday and over 28,000 more across all 5 military branches are currently on the chopping block for not adhering to Biden’s vaccine mandate. The rest of the dissenters will be gone by January when all of the deadlines officially pass. China, and the rest of the world for that matter, are laughing at us.

USA - If the United States pulls back, the world will become more dangerous. Other democracies must start preparing. Eighty years ago Japan bombed Pearl Harbour. It was a grave error, bringing the world’s mightiest country into the war and dooming the Japanese empire to oblivion. A clear-sighted Japanese admiral supposedly lamented: “I fear all we have done is to awaken a sleeping giant and fill him with a terrible resolve.” Today Japan is peaceable, rich and innovative. It was the Japanese who rebuilt their country, but their task was made easier by the superpower that defeated them. Not only was America midwife to a liberal, capitalist democracy in Japan; it also created a world order in which Japan was free to trade and grow. This order was not perfect, and did not apply everywhere. But it was better than anything that had come before.

USA - Tucker leads the conversation by noting that CPI rose by nearly 7% year over year in November, the highest inflation in decades. While that’s bad enough, Schiff responded by noting that CPI probably isn’t even the right measure of inflation, with the true inflation number being far, far higher. In his words: “When they compare our inflation rates to the inflation of the 1970s, we’re not using the same CPI that we used then. If we were using the same CPI we used in 1982, the rate would be closer to 15%, which means it’s the worst year in inflation in US history.”

USA - The United States secretly tested chemical and biological weapons on American soil during the 1960s, newly declassified Pentagon reports show. The tests included releasing deadly nerve agents in Alaska and spraying bacteria over Hawaii, according to the documents obtained Tuesday. The United States also tested nerve agents in Canada and Britain in conjunction with those two countries, and biological and chemical weapons in at least two other states, Maryland and Florida. The summaries of more than two dozen tests show that biological and chemical tests were much more widespread than the military has acknowledged previously. Rapid Tan I, II, and III, a series of tests in 1967 and 1968 in England and Canada. The tests used sarin and VX, as well as the nerve agents tabun and soman, at the British chemical weapons facility in Porton Down, England. Tests at the Suffield Defence Research Establishment in Ralston, Canada, included tabun and soman, the records show.

USA - A blinding dust storm with powerful winds of 90mph tore through half of Kansas, knocked over semi trucks in Colorado and fanned wildfires in the Oklahoma panhandle, just days after dozens of powerful tornadoes left a trail of death and destruction in five states. The extreme winds, amid some record-high temperature, affected 100 million people in states throughout the Midwest and Great Plains with the National Weather Service calling it a 'historical weather day.' 'The Central US has never seen a December storm like this,' tweeted Bill Karins, a meteorologist for MSNBC, saying it was 'multi-hazard, life threatening weather today.' Winds of 70 to more than 100 miles per hour have already torn through the area, ripping off roofs, overturning 18-wheelers and leaving at least 380,000 people without power as of 8.30pm Wednesday throughout Colorado, Kansas, Nebraska, Iowa and Missouri. At least five deaths have been attributed to the storm, with three killed in two separate car accidents in Kansas, one person crushed by a tree in Minnesota and a truck driver who died when high winds rolled over his vehicle in Iowa.

USA - A full Russian invasion of Ukraine would spread global conflict and could be the trigger for World War Three, a Ukrainian government minister warned today. Yuliia Laputina, the minister for veterans affairs, said that her country was prepared to defend itself should Moscow launch another attack on Ukraine. But she warned that the consequences of an invasion ordered by Russian President Vladimir Putin would be far-reaching, and would not be contained in her country. 'If Russia will invade you know, you should also take care about the Balkans. What Russians are doing now in Serbia - they try to provoke a situation in the Balkans,' she told Sky News in an interview on Thursday. 'But we also take into account [the beginning of] World War Three.' Her comments came as EU leaders were set to warn Russia that hostile action against Ukraine would come at a 'high price' in a message expected to be agreed during a European Council summit in Brussels on Thursday. Meanwhile, Russia said on Thursday it was ready to send a government negotiator 'at any moment' to start talks with the United States on the security guarantees it is seeking in order to defuse the crisis over Ukraine.

USA - What Americans believe when it comes to matters of faith has been shifting for decades, and the latest National Public Opinion Reference Survey conducted by Pew Research Center seems to indicate that the pace of change is accelerating. Today, the percentage of Americans that identify as Christians is the lowest that it has ever been before, and the percentage of Americans that identify as “nones” is at a new all-time record high.

VATICAN - Pope Francis claimed the EU "risks dying" as he thrusted the bloc's future under the spotlight in a throwback speech. ...He has hit out at the EU and the direction it has found itself moving in. In 2017, his strongest words came when he suggested that the bloc "risks dying" without a new vision. The Pope was speaking in Rome at an EU summit to highlight the 60th anniversary of the bloc’s foundation. In an address to European leaders, he claimed the EU faced a "vacuum of values" and was losing its "sense of direction". He said: "When a body loses its sense of direction and is no longer able to look ahead, it experiences a regression and, in the long run, risks dying." It was not the only time the Pope would criticise Brussels. This month, he slammed controversial efforts by the European Commission to make official communications more inclusive, comparing recently withdrawn guidelines on using terms like "Christmas" and "Christian" to the actions of historic dictatorships. He said: "In history many, many dictatorships have tried to do this kind of thing. Think of Napoleon … think of the Nazi dictatorship, the communist one."

USA - The richest man in the world does not own a house and has recently been selling off his fortune. He tosses satellites into orbit and harnesses the sun; he drives a car he created that uses no gas and barely needs a driver. With a flick of his finger, the stock market soars or swoons. An army of devotees hangs on his every utterance. He dreams of Mars as he bestrides Earth, square-jawed and indomitable.

ISRAEL - Israel asked the Biden administration last week to speed up the delivery of refueling tankers that could prove critical to striking Iran’s nuclear facilities, but it was told that the aircraft were back-ordered and it was unlikely that its first one would be ready until late 2024, according to US and Israeli officials. In March, Israel ordered the new KC-46 tankers, which would be used to refuel its bombers in the air, allowing them to reach their targets in Iran and return. The request came amid new tensions between Washington and Jerusalem over how to deal with Iran’s nuclear program.

IRAN - An intensification of the Israeli military threats against Iran seems to suggest that the Zionist regime has forgotten that Iran is more than capable of hitting them from anywhere. The Yedioth Ahronoth newspaper said on Tuesday that Israel’s strike on Syria is “a direct message” to Iran. The chief of staff of the Israeli army has also accepted to increase the number of troops in the air force and the intelligence branch of the Israeli army to prepare for an attack on Iran, according to the Israeli media outlets.

ISRAEL - Israeli Defense Minister Benny Gantz told reporters that he notified US officials during meetings in Washington last week that he ordered the Israeli Defense Forces to prepare to attack Iran. The order he gave was to “prepare for the Iranian challenge at the operational level,” Gantz said on the sidelines of a conference in Miami, Florida, that was held Friday. A senior Israeli military source told The Times of Israel that Gantz might have presented a timeline to Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin when an Israeli attack could take place. The Israelis have been pushing hard for the Biden administration to abandon indirect negotiations with Iran to revive the nuclear deal that are ongoing in Vienna. Gantz and other officials want the US to expand sanctions and prepare military operations, and it appears that the Americans are listening.

USA - Despite presenting itself to the public as the arbiter of truth and guarantor of factually-accurate information, guarding users against “fake news” and “misinformation,” Facebook has admitted in court that its “fact checks” of information — frequently aimed at conservatives — are nothing more than statements of opinion. The bombshell emerged from Facebook’s court battle with John Stossel, who is suing the company for defamation over its decision to add “fact check” labels to the libertarian pundit’s videos about climate change.

USA - The House and the Senate both voted to raise the debt limit helping avert a first-time default by the US as the clock ticks down on the government's ability to pay its bills. This comes after months of fighting between Democrats and Republicans over raising the debt limit and spending in Washington. The bill now goes to President Biden's desk for signature. The resolution introduced in the Senate on Tuesday to raise the debt limit by $2.5 trillion passed along party lines, 50 to 49. Senate Majority Leader Charles Schumer said this would mean Congress won't have to fight about raising the debt limit again until 2023 — beyond the midterm elections.