USA - In countries across the globe, democratic norms and civil liberties have deteriorated, while populists have enjoyed surprising success at the ballot box. Newly democratic nations have struggled, while more-established, once self-assured democracies have stumbled, exposing long-simmering weaknesses in their social fabrics and institutional designs. For many, democracy is not delivering; people like democracy, but their commitment to it is often not very strong; political and social divisions are amplifying the challenges of contemporary democracy; and people want a stronger public voice in politics and policymaking. In part, the current moment of anxiety about liberal democracy is linked to frustration with how democratic societies are functioning. Pew Research Center surveys have consistently found large shares of the public in many countries saying they are dissatisfied with the way their democracy is working. And for many, this dissatisfaction is leading to a desire for political change.

GERMANY - Germany’s new foreign minister, Annalena Baerbock, has said the Nord Stream 2 natural gas pipeline from Russia can’t be launched yet because it doesn’t meet EU energy requirements and “safety” concerns are outstanding. Baerbock, a Green politician who assumed her role in the Foreign Ministry this week, discussed the fate of the multinational project in an interview with the broadcaster ZDF on Sunday. She insisted it still hadn’t met all that was required for it to be certified. “As things stand at the moment, this pipeline cannot be approved because it does not meet the requirements of European energy law, and the safety issues are still on the table,” she said. The Greens have openly opposed the pipeline and, during the recent election campaign and called for a halt to its construction. Their coalition partners from the social-democratic SPD have been more reserved in expressing their opinion of the project.

USA - After CPI's rise last week (which was somehow briefly seen as 'good' news because it was lower than a wild whisper number), Producer Prices tore up the narrative this morning printing a record breaking 9.6% YoY [year on year] rise (smashing expectations of +9.2% and well above the +8.6% YoY print for October)… And judging by the exploding pipeline for producer prices, things are going to get a lot worse before they get better…

USA - Precious Metals Specialist Phillip Patrick joined Steve Bannon on The War Room on Tuesday. The US Bureau of Labor Statistics reported on Tuesday that the producer price inflation jumped 9.6% year over year in November. The Pelosi-Biden gang is working overtime to destroy the US dollar and punish working-class Americans. The War Room discussion revolved around the historic inflation number released this morning. According to Phillip Patrick, the US dollar has lost 40 percent of its value since 2000. This is a shocking number. Phillip Patrick: look at the results. A dollar in January 2000 is worth about 60¢ today. Which means in the past 21 years inflation has eroded 40% of the buying power of our dollar… It’s absurd. By the way, 40% since January of 2000. 10% of that loss has happened in the last 12 months. Democrats don’t care. They are going to pass another disastrous socialist spending bill by Christmas thanks to Republicans in the US Senate.

USA - Over two dozen US Air Force service members have been discharged for refusing to get vaccinated against Covid-19 – the first in the US military to be punished over President Joe Biden’s vaccine mandate. The 27 airmen who had been discharged from the force for missing the vaccination deadline were “younger, lower-ranking personnel” and were serving their first term of enlistment, Air Force spokeswoman Ann Stefanek told the media on Monday. Unlike others in the US military who have sought religious and medical exemptions from the mandate, the dismissed airmen did not seek any exemptions, she claimed. Their reason for discharge was officially disobeying an order, however it is not clear whether they received honorable discharges. Reports indicate that as many as 40,000 US military personnel have refused vaccination against Covid-19 or sought an exemption – roughly 3% of troops.

USA - President Joe Biden and his Democratic allies have consistently said that Biden’s ‘Build Back Better Plan’ will add zero dollars to the deficit. This — of course — is mathematically impossible, but the Democratic party and their pals in the media have repeated it often enough in hopes it becomes true. On Monday, The Wall Street Journal editorial board issued a blistering column, explaining why the true cost of the BBB plan is at least $3 trillion over a 10-year span of time and calling the claim zero dollars the “lie of the year”: We’ve been telling you for months that the plan’s advertised cost of $1.75 trillion over 10 years includes multiple budget gimmicks that disguise the real cost. The Penn Wharton Budget Model has scored the 10-year cost at about $4.6 trillion, but the White House keeps claiming against all evidence that the cost is “zero.” Do we really have any men or women in Congress that have the courage to act for the American people? It’s not Build Back Better – it’s the lie of the year.

USA - It is often said that life imitates art, and these days that is particularly true on the mean streets of our major cities. Violent criminals just keep getting more brazen, and murder rates are soaring all over the nation. As you will see below, one official in Los Angeles is actually comparing what is now happening to a horror movie that came out a number of years ago called “The Purge”. But in that movie, violent criminals only had one night each year to run wild. Unfortunately, in America today they are running wild every single night.

UK - The number of people with Omicron in UK hospitals according to Deputy Prime Minister Dominic Raab has been revised down from 250 to ten, with government officials claiming the minister had “misspoke” in earlier interviews. The UK’s deputy prime minister, Dominic Raab, has revised the number of people in hospital with the Omicron variant of the Chinese coronavirus from 250 to ten, over three interviews given on Tuesday morning. Raab had initially told Sky News that the number of people in UK hospitals with the variant was 250 the “last time [he] looked”. However, Raab later told BBC Breakfast that only nine people in hospitals were suffering from the disease. “I think we have one death,” Raab said regarding Omicron in the UK. “I think we’ve got nine people who are in hospital with it.”

USA - In an appearance on Epoch TV’s “American Thought Leaders” program, Risch, an epidemiology professor at the Yale School of Public Health and Yale School of Medicine’s Department of Epidemiology and Public Health, argued that by and large, what has characterized the entire CCP (Chinese Communist Party) virus pandemic has been a “degree of fear and people’s response to the fear.” “Overall, I’d say that we’ve had a pandemic of fear. And fear has affected almost everybody, whereas the infection has affected relatively few,” said Risch. “By and large, it’s been a very selected pandemic, and predictable. It was very distinguished between young versus old, healthy versus chronic disease people. So we quickly learned who was at risk for the pandemic and who wasn’t. However, the fear was manufactured for everybody. And that’s what’s characterized the whole pandemic is that degree of fear and people’s response to the fear.”

UK - A lack of transparency over the UK's first Omicron death prompted fury today, as a doctor told the Government to release more details to stop 'unnecessary alarm'. Experts are demanding answers about the UK's first Omicron fatality, such as the individual's vaccination status, if they were part of a group vulnerable to Covid, and if the virus was the leading cause of death. Professor of medicine and consultant oncologist Karol Sikora said the Government was not providing the nation with enough information about the death, and that this was causing 'unnecessarily alarming'.

KOREA - There’s been no formal treaty ending the 1950-53 Korean War. So South and North Korea are still technically at war, backed by the US and China, respectively. South Korea President Moon Jae-in gave the declaration adding that the talks have yet to begin because of North Korea’s demands, reports BBC. North Korea consistently objects to the presence of US troops in South Korea; the joint military drills held every year between US and South Korea; as well as US-led sanctions against North Korea’s weapons programme. But the US has repeatedly said that North Korea must first abandon its nuclear weapons before any sanctions can be lifted.

SOUTH KOREA - Reports that there is an agreement in place to bring the Korean War to an end should not be taken seriously. This would be of no benefit to the United States, which for various reasons wants to maintain the status quo. The US will never accept a formal end to the Korean War because maintaining the status quo remains firmly in its geopolitical interests. The ‘frozen conflict’ is ultimately what allows Washington to host 30,000 troops on the Korean peninsula in the effort to contain North Korea, sustain operational command over South Korea’s entire army and control the border via the United Nations Command. South Korea is a pillar of its military projection in Asia, with China firmly in view. To end the Korean War would immediately negate the purpose and legitimacy of America’s presence, culling the idea of its ‘saviour narrative’ and empowering suppressed political movements who want the US to leave (both in South and North Korea).

USA - All of a sudden, inflation is one of the hottest political issues in America. Most people seem surprised that inflation has gotten so wildly out of control, but the truth is that this should not be a surprise to any of us. We have been warned for years that this was coming. Whenever our corrupt politicians in Washington authorized trillions more in spending that we couldn’t afford, we were warned that this would eventually cause extremely painful inflation. But it didn’t happen immediately, and so most Americans didn’t take the warnings seriously. And as the “experts” at the Federal Reserve kept pumping trillions of fresh dollars into our financial system, we were warned that there would eventually be severe consequences. But those consequences did not arrive immediately, and so most Americans didn’t take the warnings seriously. But now a day of reckoning has arrived, and conditions are only going to get worse from this point forward. So what are our politicians in Washington planning to do to get us out of this mess? Well, the Biden administration wants to spend trillions more. They just can’t stop.

TURKEY - Here in President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s hometown on Turkey’s Black Sea coast, residents are questioning the leadership of their city’s favorite son amid an economic crisis that is driving up the cost of food, gasoline and medicine. Turkey’s currency has lost as much as 45% of its value this year, largely triggered by Mr Erdogan’s own economic policies, economists and former Turkish officials say. The crisis has sparked outrage among poor- and middle-class Turks who have made up Mr Erdogan’s power base for nearly two decades but are now turning against him in record numbers, opinion polls show.

JAPAN - A strong earthquake with a magnitude of five struck eastern Japan on Sunday. The quake's epicenter was in the southern part of Ibaraki prefecture, east of Tokyo. Buildings shook in the capital, but no damage was reported. Earlier this month, a swarm of quakes was reported near Mount Fuji, and the Tokara Islands, an archipelago that falls within Kagoshima Prefecture, an ominous warning that the next big natural disaster could be nearing. The South China Morning Post (SCMP) reports that experts and government agencies have asked the public to remain calm. They said multiple earthquake swarms near Mount Fuji and the Tokara Islands do not suggest an impending disaster like the devastating earthquake and tsunami in 2011. Attempts to keep the public calm are not working as planned. Asahi newspaper alerted readers that "the frequency of tremors indicates that a megaquake could occur in the near future" and warning of "impending doom."