UK - Alarming reports of the extent of the influence of LGBTQ+ group Stonewall at government departments – seemingly without the knowledge of ministers – beg the question: Who’s actually running the British state? Is it ineptitude or cowardice that has led to a situation where the UK government has lost control over a civil service that is quietly getting on with the project of turning the British state into a woke cultural institution? The LGBTQ+ lobby group Stonewall is as woke as it gets. And yet despite its illiberal reputation for advocating the policing of language and demanding the usage of pronouns, it is busy re-engineering the culture of the civil service. Back in June, the then-foreign secretary, Dominic Raab, did not have a clue that his senior officials had opted to sign up to Stonewall’s training programme. It seems that the officials responsible for importing the group’s insidious training schemes are a law unto themselves.

CHILE - The South American nation of Chile is known worldwide for its incredible mountain ranges, with a whopping 22 mountains peaking at over 20,000 ft. But there is one mountain located in the Atacama desert which is different from the rest. The driest desert in the world is home to a mountain of discarded clothing, containing everything from Christmas sweaters to ski boots, as the pollution from the industry of fast fashion continues to grow. Chile has long been a hub of secondhand and unsold clothing, made in China or Bangladesh and passing through Europe, Asia or the United States before arriving in Chile, where it is resold around Latin America. Some 59,000 tons of clothing arrive each year at the Iquique port in the Alto Hospice free zone in northern Chile, where it is bought by clothing merchants or smuggled across the border to other Latin American nations. But at least 39,000 tons that cannot be sold end up in rubbish dumps in the desert.

USA - One of the world's leading computer engineers believes the metaverse, the idea that caused Mark Zuckerberg to rebrand his whole company, could one day make reality disappear. In a recent op-ed, Louis Rosenberg, a computer scientist known for developing the first functional augmented reality system at Air Force Research Laboratory and founding virtual reality company Immersion Corporation, believes that by integrating virtual reality and augmented reality and having people interact in the digital realm for a significant portion of their day, it could 'alter our sense of reality' and distort 'how we interpret our direct daily experiences.' 'Our surroundings will become filled with persons, places, objects, and activities that don’t actually exist, and yet they will seem deeply authentic to us,' Rosenberg penned in the piece, published by Big Think.

USA - The Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD) tweeted a release Tuesday advising city residents to “cooperate and comply” when being robbed. LAPD then uses the release to outline seven points conveying the department’s advice for what city residents ought to do in response to the robberies. Point five on the release says, “If you are being robbed, do not resist the robbery suspects; cooperate and comply with their demands. Be a good witness.” California is one of the most stringently gun-controlled states in the Union. In spite of all the gun and ammunition controls, Los Angeles is seeing “an increase in violent street robberies.”

USA - Facebook, Twitter and other big tech companies actually want standardized Internet speech regulations. In fact, Facebook has been spending millions of dollars on ads that openly call for more government regulation of speech on the Internet. At first glance, it may seem odd that Facebook wants more government regulation of the tech industry, but it actually makes perfect sense. If the federal government is the one making the rules, Facebook and the other big tech companies can legally censor you into oblivion without ever having to worry about any legal consequences. In a lot of ways, large corporations now have more power over our lives than national governments do, and many of the largest corporations are becoming increasingly authoritarian. Big tech companies such as Facebook and Twitter have decided that they want to use their power to shape what you think, what you believe and how you view the world.

UK - Steam engines are the latest to face ridiculous reassessment for their part in the Industrial Revolution and the imperialist expansion of the colonial powers, with a research project launched to highlight their links to slavery. Steam bursting out of funnels is suspiciously white and may not be as innocent as it looks. And someone is now paying real money to investigate the inherent racism of steam. The cash – surprise, surprise – is coming from a university fund. The White Rose Consortium is shovelling £9,000 into Britain’s National Railway Museum in York to investigate its collection of steam engines for any links to slavery and colonialism. Is there no end in sight for this track of woke nonsense? Surely it’ll all have to run out of steam soon? Where, really, is there left to go? Oh, hang on a second, though... Most of the slave trade occurred way before the age of steam, when ships relied on sails to get from Africa to the colonies... don’t tell the wokey managers of a university fund – they’ll try and cancel the wind next…

USA - American households are carrying record amounts of debt as home and auto prices surge, Covid infections continue to fall and people get out their credit cards again. Between July and September, US household debt climbed to a new record of $15.24 trillion, the Federal Reserve Bank of New York said Tuesday. It was an increase of 1.9%, or $286 billion, from the second quarter of the year. Inflation is sitting at multi-year highs thanks to supply chain disruptions that have increased the costs of shipping and raw materials. At the same time, consumer demand is also going through the roof.

USA - Prices of processed turkeys are up 40.7 percent compared with a year ago, data from the Department of Labor’s Producer Price Index showed Tuesday. That’s even after falling a seasonally adjusted one percent in October. It may be hard to even find turkeys in some parts of the country this year. The Wall Street Journal reported that turkeys were 60 percent out of stock. Cranberries, yams, and sweet potatoes are also low in stock.

VATICAN - A joint letter from two Rome-based cardinals recommends leaders of Christian communities take part in the bishops’ synodal discussions and help them draft the official reports. It also suggests that delegates from other churches are sent to take part in the diocesan synods taking place across the world; that they address synod assemblies, send in written reflections and organise “listening sessions”. The 2021-2023 synod process launched by Pope Francis last month is the most ambitious Catholic renewal project in 60 years. It includes a listening and consultation process across the 1.3 billion-member Church. Each diocese has been asked to hold a synod with bishops in each country and region synthesising the results and submitting them to Rome. A synod assembly of bishops will then take place in the Vatican in 2023. The instruction from the Vatican says ecumenical representatives should be involved at every stage of the process, which will involve all denominations in a Catholic renewal process in a way that is without modern precedent.

VATICAN - Pope Francis has warned that if action is not taken at COP26 to remedy the ecological crisis already underway, “we would face God’s judgement” for “our failure to act as stewards of creation”.The message from the Pope to Scots Catholics was read out by Archbishop Claudio Gugerotti, the Pope’s representative in the UK, at a special Mass attended by all eight of Scotland’s bishops. Asking Scots Catholics to “persevere in the faith”, the Holy Father asked the faithful of Scotland to pray that they renew “their commitment to being convincing witnesses of the joy of the gospel”. The Pope said in his message: “Time is running out. This occasion must not be wasted, lest we have to face God’s judgement for our failure to be faithful stewards of the world he has entrusted to our care.’

ISRAEL - Prime Minister Naftali Bennett, Foreign Minister Yair Lapid, Opposition Leader Benjamin Netanyahu and President Isaac Herzog are among those who will address the gathering, which will be livestreamed on the Government Press Office website and its Facebook page.

USA - Joe Biden’s pick for Comptroller of the Currency, Saule Omarova, was born and raised in communist USSR. She refuses to hand over her university thesis on Marxism she wrote when she was in school in the USSR. In a newly uncovered video, Omarova admitted her goal is to bankrupt the coal, oil and gas industry in order to usher in a ‘green’ agenda. “Here what I’m thinking about is primarily the coal and oil and gas industry. A lot of the smaller players in that industry are going to probably go bankrupt in short order, at least we want them to go bankrupt if we want to tackle climate change, right?” Saule Omarova said in a clip uncovered by the American Accountability Foundation.

IRAN - After a hiatus that has run much too long, nuclear talks between Iran and the P5+1 are scheduled to resume in Vienna on November 29th. This information comes from Ali Bagheri Kani, Iran’s chief nuclear negotiator. It was released by way of a tweet that read: "In a phone call with @enriquemora, we agreed to start the negotiations aiming at removal of unlawful & inhumane sanctions on 29 November in Vienna." Enrique Mora is the European Union Envoy to the talks.

ISRAEL - A top Israeli official has told Iran International that an attack against Iran's nuclear targets has become a priority, as media say that training will begin. "The Israeli Air Force will begin practicing for a strike on Iran’s nuclear program beginning next year, having set aside funding and updated its training schedule for the mission," the Times of Israel reported. The newspaper said that while plans were in draft, some parts could be ready quickly while others would take over a year to be fully actionable. A senior Israeli military official told Iran International's correspondent in Tel Aviv Monday that attacking Iran was now the Israeli air force’s top priority. Last week the Israeli media revealed the government had a $1.5 billion budget for an attack on Iran's nuclear facilities that covered fighter jets, bombers, and intelligence gathering drones, as well as specialized munitions that could penetrate Iran's underground sites.

IRAN - Head of Tehran’s National Security Council makes threat in English and Hebrew in response to reports Jerusalem has okayed $1.5 billion for strikes against its nuclear program. One of Iran’s most senior leaders threatened on Sunday that if Israel attacked its nuclear program, Tehran’s response would require the Jewish state to spend “tens of thousands of billion dollars” to reconstruct the country. “Instead of allocating 1.5 billion dollars budget for atrocities against Iran, the Zionist regime should focus on providing tens of thousands of billion dollars funding to repair the damage that is going to be caused by Iran’s shocking response,” said Shamkhani in his English tweet.