INDONESIA - An "extreme" earthquake has rocked Indonesia and led experts to issue a subsequent tsunami warning. The earthquake, which is believed to have struck at around 3.20am GMT, is reported to have struck 71 miles north of Maumere. However, the American-based Pacific Tsunami Warning Center is believed to have warned waves could possibly reach coasts "within 1,000 kilometres of Indonesia quake centre". Maumere is the largest city on the north eastern coast of Flores Island.

USA - A dozen US cities just broke records for annual homicides, a feat that should shake the political establishment to its very foundations. But because these cities are run by Democrats, the mainstream media has given them a pass. A pandemic is tearing a path of pain and suffering across the American heartland, where the very bonds that hold communities together are being tested like never before. Yet this malignancy requires no microscope to witness. From Toledo, Ohio to Albuquerque, New Mexico, people are having their lives cut tragically short due to cold-blooded murders, oftentimes through the cold middleman of a firearm.

ISRAEL - Prime Minister Naftali Bennett departed to Abu Dhabi on Sunday to meet with Crown Prince Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed Al Nahyan, on the first trip by an Israeli prime minister to the United Arab Emirates. Bennett was greeted by an honor guard and UAE Foreign Minister Sheikh Abdullah bin Zayed. “I’m excited to be here, on the first official visit of an Israeli leader here,” Bennett said. “We look forward to strengthening the relations between the countries.” Bennett said on the tarmac at Ben-Gurion Airport that Israel-UAE relations are “excellent and extensive,” and called to “nurture and strengthen them, and build the warm peace between the two nations.” Bennett is set to meet with MBZ, as the Emirati leader is known, on Monday, as well as with other ministers and senior officials.

RUSSIA - A flatbed rail wagon speeding through south-west Russia last week carried an ill omen for negotiations to avert a larger war with Ukraine. On board was a Buk-M1, the kind of medium-range surface-to-air missile system that became notorious in 2014 after a missile fired from territory controlled by Russian proxies in eastern Ukraine shot down a Malaysian airliner, killing all 298 people aboard. If Russia goes to war in Ukraine, it still needs to take a number of steps: establishing fuel supply lines, opening field hospitals and deploying air-defence systems such as the Buk that would protect its heavy weaponry and troops near the front. Even as Joe Biden and Vladimir Putin were sitting down to talks meant to end the crisis, Russia was inching closer to being ready to launch a full-scale ground invasion of its neighbour. Despite the Putin-Biden talks, the crisis is growing deeper.

CHINA - Beijing’s had enough of Taipei’s posturing and the stream of support being drummed up for Taiwan across the West. Military action’s unlikely, but it will use its economic and diplomatic muscle to punish the island’s supporters. It’s been another busy week on China-related matters. Unsurprisingly, in line to manufacture consent for America’s and the Anglosphere world’s diplomatic boycott of the Winter Olympics, there’s been a coordinated frontloading of anti-China content from various US affiliated groups and organizations. In addition, the US Congress has sought to advance a number of anti-China bills and resolutions. Most seriously, tensions over Taiwan are ratcheting up yet again. Just as President Joe Biden undertakes his self-proclaimed “democracy summit,” which Taipei has been invited to, Beijing has been making its furious opposition known, not just in words, but with actions, too.

USA - The federal government collected a record $565,135,000,000 in total taxes through the first two months of fiscal 2022 (October and November), according to the Monthly Treasury Statement. The federal government also collected a record $282,094,000,000 in individual income taxes in the first two months of this fiscal year. While collecting its record $565,135,000,000 in total taxes in the first two months of this fiscal year, the federal government spent $921,526,000,000 — resulting in a deficit of $356,390,000,000 in the first two months of the fiscal year.

USA - SNL this weekend ran a “hip-hop nativity” skit with a twerking “baby Jesus” – Mary as a stripper – and “baby daddy” Joseph learning how to “pimp walk.” There is nothing too low for the degenerates at Saturday Night Live. The cowards at SNL would never dare do a skit like this on Mohammad and Islam. “Times are changing and we can’t do the normal, boring pageant thing this year,” one of the teachers said. “Too old school. Too boring, okay? This year we’re switching it up.”

USA - In 2021 (as of October 8), there have been 18 weather/climate disaster events with losses exceeding $1 billion each to affect the United States. These events included 1 drought event, 2 flooding events, 9 severe storm events, 4 tropical cyclone events, 1 wildfire event, and 1 winter storm event. Overall, these events resulted in the deaths of 538 people and had significant economic effects on the areas impacted. The 1980–2020 annual average is 7.1 events (CPI-adjusted); the annual average for the most recent 5 years (2016–2020) is 16.2 events (CPI-adjusted). The US has sustained 308 weather and climate disasters since 1980 where overall damages/costs reached or exceeded $1 billion (including CPI adjustment to 2021). The total cost of these 308 events exceeds $2.085 trillion.

VATICAN - Pope Francis has launched a blistering attack on the European Union, claiming that it could be headed down the same road as the Nazis. He’s absolutely right, but is anyone at the EU paying attention? What prompted the Pope’s condemnation was a 30-page document produced by the European Commission’s equality commissioner, Helena Dalli, which said references to Christianity should be ditched in the EU institutions. For example, the document called for EU staffers to replace the word “Christmas” with “holiday,” as “not everyone celebrates the Christian holidays, and not all Christians celebrate them on the same dates.”

USA - A new study spells out in alarming detail how easy it is for American security services and law enforcement agencies to bypass conventional legal routes to access all manner of confidential data from your phone. RT recently reported on a leaked document, which exposed how the Federal Bureau of Investigation and US law enforcement can access a wealth of data from popular messaging apps via methods such as court orders and subpoenas. Users would no doubt be shocked to learn the readiness with which WhatsApp and iMessage might hand over highly sensitive, private information without their knowledge or consent. However, the findings of a new report from the Center for Democracy and Technology make for even more disturbing reading – for they starkly reveal how US security and intelligence services can easily access an even wider array of personal data from private providers, and in the process circumvent legal processes.

EUROPE - The move to enshrine ‘hate crimes’ into its founding treaties will just be another flashpoint for clashes between Brussels and the likes of Hungary and Poland. The European Commission is proposing to add “hate crimes” to one of the founding treaties of the European Union. This will give Brussels more power to punish member states that it deems are not effectively tackling hate speech, misogyny, and homophobia. According to Politico, which has seen the draft text, “the proposal comes in the wake of social movements like the #MeToo campaign and Black Lives Matter protests.” The European Commission text says, “hate is moving into the mainstream, targeting individuals and groups of people sharing or perceived as sharing ‘a common characteristic,’ such as race, ethnicity, language, religion, nationality, age, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, gender expression, sex characteristics or any other fundamental characteristic, or a combination of such characteristics.”

USA - At least 70 people are thought to have been killed in Kentucky, and there are multiple fatalities at an Amazon distribution center in Illinois, after at least 18 tornadoes ripped across the South and Midwest of the US on Friday night. Kentucky Governor Andy Beshear said at a briefing midday on Saturday the death toll was now 'north of 70' and that 'it may in fact end up exceeding 100 before the day is done.' 'This will be, I believe, the deadliest tornado system to ever run through Kentucky,' he added. 'It is indescribable. The level of devastation is unlike anything I have ever seen.' The early casualty estimates suggest that the tragedy is the deadliest tornado strike in Kentucky in more than a century, on a scale last seen in 1890 when twisters killed 76 in the Louisville area. One tornado among the dozens that struck is estimated to have a damage path of more than 200 miles, which would approach or exceed the all-time global record.

USA - A war is being waged in Fairfax County, Virginia — one that will have implications far beyond its local influence. In September, local mother Stacy Langton confronted the school board after finding questionable content in the library at Fairfax High School. The resulting video of her presentation went viral. The two books she addressed were “Lawn Boy” by Jonathan Evison and “Gender Queer,” a graphic novel by Maia Kobabe. While many would shrink from confronting school officials or stating so specifically why they find these books objectionable, Langton made it very clear what the offensive content was and what was at stake. “The illustrations include fellatio, sex toys,” she said at the meeting, describing and illustrating in the books’ own words and images just how explicit the content was. At one point, the board urged her to tone it down and appeared to be cutting her off, saying that there were children present — an ironic concern, given the subject.

VATICAN - The Catholic Church has apologized to parents after a bishop in Sicily told a congregation packed with children that “Santa Claus does not exist,” and that the modern Father Christmas was invented by the Coca-Cola company. “First of all, in the name of the bishop, I express my regret for this declaration which has generated disappointment in the smallest children,” the Italian press quoted Don Alessandro Paolino of the Diocese of Noto as saying.

USA - Dr Naomi Wolf, a Rhodes Scholar and former Clinton Administration advisor, went off on the medical elites on Steve Bannon’s War Room: We’re seeing this state by state. There’s some kind of contract where governors have to deliver a certain percent of vaccinated in order to get something from pharma or in order to fullfill their contract. So you can see this structure over and over of, well we have to reach 70% of 80% of vaccinated or you don’t get your rights back. And, this is not how America works. I have my rights. She (New York Governor Hochul) can’t make me…