UK - Apparently mankind is incapable of internalizing the warnings of much of Western civilization’s science fiction. For a couple of years now, folks have given the side-eye to the robotic dog that can surveil, get around obstacles, and carry a sniper rifle. But that fake K-9 is nothing compared to what Engineered Arts has put out. Despite the warnings the world received in "I,Robot" and the "Terminator" movies, the British tech company has decided to give the world Ameca, which the company calls "The Future Face of Robotics." The really good news? These lifelike robots are set to be the platform for artificial intelligence and machine learning. What could possibly go wrong?

MIDDLE EAST - Syrian state television reported on Sunday that multiple explosions had been heard inside a US base in the Al-Tanf region near the Iraqi border. The garrison is located in a strategic area near Syria's Tanf border crossing with Iraq at the crossroad of a main Baghdad-Damascus highway, Tehran's main arms supply route by land to Syria and Lebanon's powerful Hezbollah militia. Several drones attacked the outskirts of the base last October but there were no American casualties, according to US officials. While it is not common for attacks on the US troops at the outpost, Iranian-backed forces have frequently attacked American troops with drones and rockets in eastern Syria and Iraq.

ISRAEL - Israeli officials have rebuked the United States' handling of the Iran nuclear talks, with one saying Washington was “confused” in their expectation that Tehran would not harden its position on returning to compliance with the terms of the 2015 agreement. Despite this, a senior US State Department official stressed that US-Israel coordination regarding the deal remains strong. "I think we may have some differences – well, that’s natural, and we understand that we are situated differently, we have different ways sometimes of approaching it," the official said, adding "but our goal remains the same, and our goal is absolutely resolute that we will not allow Iran to acquire a nuclear weapon, and that is something where we are fully aligned with Israel."

USA - The number of US homes with a married couple and kids fell to a record low, according to new government data, as the pandemic further delayed weddings and more adults don’t plan to have kids at all. The share of the US’s 130 million households headed by married parents with children under age 18 fell to 17.8% in 2021 from 18.6% last year, according to the Census Bureau. That’s down from more than 40% in 1970. By absolute numbers, there are just 23.1 million homes with nuclear families, the fewest since 1959, the data show.

EUROPE - Yesterday's meeting of NATO’s foreign ministers in Latvia's capital Riga ended with new threats against Russia. US Secretary of State Antony Blinken urged Moscow to immediately withdraw its troops from the Ukrainian border. His outgoing German counterpart Heiko Maas praised the fact that a "common" language was found regarding "Russian troop movements." The grounds, on which NATO ministers claim authority to prohibit Moscow from deploying its own troops in a particular area of its own territory, remain unclear. At the same time, several NATO countries are positioning new forces against Russia. The UK will base tanks and combat vehicles in Germany to be able to move them more quickly toward the Russian border, in the event of an escalation. Russian President Vladimir Putin urgently warns NATO states not to cross Moscow's red lines and demands that NATO ends its "further eastward expansion," while insisting on agreements with "security guarantees” to halt the escalation of conflicts.

ISRAEL - Israeli officials have regularly called for a ‘credible military threat’ against Tehran’s nuclear facilities, but less discussed is the major conflict that’s almost sure to follow. The strike itself against Iran’s nuclear facilities, an operation that would indeed be far, far more complicated and difficult than any other the IDF has conducted. Iran does not have one nuclear facility that one group of planes could take out in a single strike, but many that are spread throughout the country, which would therefore require extraordinary levels of coordination to ensure that all of the sites were hit at the same time. Making this more difficult is the fact that many of the facilities are buried deep underground, making them all but impenetrable to attacks from the air, particularly the Fordo reactor, where Iran recently began enriching uranium to 20 percent levels of purity with advanced centrifuges, in the latest breach of the 2015 nuclear deal. ...The propensity of Israeli officials to discuss the technical aspects of an attack on Iran’s nuclear facilities belies the true calculus at play in deciding whether to carry it out: it’s not about the strike, but the war that follows.

UK - She’s done it very quietly. Away from prying eyes, in the parts of parliament which journalists don’t pay much attention to, Priti Patel has effectively criminalised the act of protest. The Government waited until the final stages of a bill’s legislative process and then suddenly proposed a series of amendments, leaving reporters and human rights groups very little time to raise the alarm.

USA - A woman who resides in rural Alaska is lifting the lid on what it's really like to live in a remote part of the state, where moose are her neighbors and a half-gallon of milk costs $18. Emily, who is known as @emilyinalaska_ on TikTok, has been documenting the highs and lows of life in south-central Alaska after joining the social media platform last year during the coronavirus pandemic. She went viral a few weeks ago when she shared a video revealing the astronomical prices tags found on common grocery store items, leaving viewers stunned by the markup. 'Goods are priced higher since they have to travel farther by plane or barge to get to rural areas,' she explained using the app’s text-to-voice feature. 'The cost of living in Alaska is 24 percent higher than the national average.' According to the footage, a 32 oz block of Tillamook cheddar cheese is $24.99, a half a gallon of Darigold milk is $18.29, a 32 oz bottle of flavored Coffeemate creamer is $12.89, and a pack of Land O’Frost honey smoked turkey breast is $10.29.

USA - Cannabis shops across the San Francisco Bay Area have been thrown into dire straits as gangs of thieves broke into more than 15 shops throughout November during the series of ‘smash-and-grab’ robberies that are plaguing California. Oakland Police Chief LeRonne Armstrong told reporters that ‘hundreds’ of vehicles targeted marijuana stores in Oakland last month, firing 175 shots and stealing about $5 million worth of products. Alphonso ‘Tucky’ Blunt, owner of Blunts and Moore, told MJBizDaily that his store lost about $25,000 during a November 22 raid, where more than a dozen burglars ransacked the store. ‘I know 25 or so businesses that got hit … and out of all those, the percentage I know that told me that they may not be able to reopen is about 50 percent. That’s scary,’ Blunt said. ‘I was safer, and had more money, (selling) on the street, illegally.’

EUROPE - Godless EU Equality Minister Helena Dalli drops plan to erase Christmas after Vatican backlash. EU Equality Commissioner Helena Dalli proposed new rules for the European Union this year changing the name of Christmas to “Holiday period.” Dalli also urged Europeans to drop the use of the names Mary and John. We are witnessing the end of Western society and culture. What a heart-breaking development. Dalli backtracked on her proposals but only after the Vatican denounced the move. ”My initiative to draft guidelines as an internal document for communication by Commission staff in their duties was intended to achieve an important aim: to illustrate the diversity of European culture and showcase the inclusive nature of the European Commission towards all walks of life and beliefs of European citizens,” Dalli said.

USA - A former Planned Parenthood manager who now helps other abortion industry workers leave the business said the “greatest lie women have been told” is that, in order to achieve success, equality, and justice, they need abortion. In an op-ed at Fox News Wednesday, as the Supreme Court heard opening arguments in a case that poses the most significant challenge in decades to the right to abortion created by the Court’s decision in Roe vs Wade, Johnson acknowledged she “told this very lie to countless women in order to convince them to pay us at Planned Parenthood to get rid of that growing life inside of them.”

USA - Former President Donald Trump tore into President Joe Biden in a wide-ranging interview Thursday, suggesting that the administration is "knowingly" destroying the country and is distrusted by the American people. During an appearance on "Fox & Friends," Trump shot back at the president over his 2020 comments, where he suggested that Trump was responsible for American COVID deaths and should not remain in office. Trump largely laid the blame for the continued deaths, which now exceed the lives lost in 2020, on distrust of the current administration and their inability to "sell" the vaccine to the public. "Some people don’t want to take them and that’s their freedom and that’s what we have to do. But, people don’t want to take them because they don’t trust Biden, they don’t trust the administration," said the former president. Trump later slammed Biden for his foreign policy decisions regarding the Afghanistan withdrawal, China, and the rising cost of gasoline. "We have a group of people... that are destroying our country and perhaps knowingly destroying our country," said Trump.

GERMANY - Germany is poised to clamp down on people who aren’t vaccinated against Covid-19 and drastically curtail social contacts to ease pressure on increasingly stretched hospitals. In one of her final acts as chancellor, Angela Merkel will hold talks with Germany’s 16 regional premiers later on Thursday at which they’re expected to agree on new curbs including allowing only people who are vaccinated or recovered into restaurants, theaters and non-essential stores. According to a draft agreement prepared by Merkel’s office, there will also be tighter contact restrictions for non-vaccinated people, nightclubs will be closed in places with high infection rates and there will be strict limits on the number of spectators at large public events. “The important thing is that this is virtually a lockdown for the unvaccinated,” outgoing Health Minister Jens Spahn said Thursday in an interview with ZDF television. “The more than 12 million adults who aren’t inoculated is what is creating a challenge for the health system.”

GERMANY - Irony has been declared many times in this pandemic but now, from Covid-riddled Germany comes the final proof: you can't kill yourself now unless you've been vaccinated. As European countries battle to limit the spread of the virus, Verein Sterbehilfe – the German Euthanasia Association – has issued a new directive, declaring it will now only help those who have been vaccinated or recovered from the disease. In a statement, the association said: “Euthanasia and the preparatory examination of the voluntary responsibility of our members willing to die require human closeness. Human closeness, however, is a prerequisite and breeding ground for coronavirus transmission. As of today, the 2G rule applies in our association, supplemented by situation-related measures, such as quick tests before encounters in closed rooms. 'Close encounters in closed rooms' – what a fabulous German euphemism for assisted suicide. The term '2G' meanwhile refers to a system which only allows free movement for leisure activities for the geimpft oder genese — 'vaccinated or recovered.' God forbid that a person without the jab should try to end it all – talk about a vaccine passport to the afterlife...

USA - Their legacy? Between 1973 and 2017, according to numbers published this year by the Guttmacher Institute, doctors killed 58,177,540 babies in the United States. The National Right to Life Educational Foundation estimates that from 1973 and 2020, the number is 62,502,904. This year, the killing has continued. But the Supreme Court now has a chance to reverse Roe vs Wade. Will Chief Justice John Roberts and Justices Brett Kavanaugh and Amy Barrett stand with Blackmun — or with the innocent unborn?