UK - The Fortnum & Mason CEO today gloomily predicted a third of British retail brands will disappear by March after an 80% plunge in footfall due to lockdown and shoppers avoiding the West End. Ewan Venters said the Government's new strict tier system, which bans people meeting anyone outside their household indoors, would restrict the number of shoppers venturing into stores over the crucial Christmas period. He told BBC Radio 4's Today programme: 'I predict that by the end of the first quarter of next year up a third of British retail brands will disappear.' Boris Johnson imposed brutal Tier 2 and 3 rules on 99% of England yesterday, with the higher category banning all hospitality business, while the other permits pubs to stay open only if they serve food. Tier 3 areas will also see bans on any other indoor entertainment venues, including casinos, amusement arcades, bowling alleys and museums.

USA - High profile Christians like Supreme Court Justice Amy Coney Barrett and Vice President Mike Pence have been subject to attacks for their faith. But after "The View” host Joy Behar took aim at Pence, the backlash proved Christians are not taking abuse in silence. The tipping point was when Behar trashed Pence for his faith during a 2018 segment. “It’s one thing to talk to Jesus; it’s another thing when Jesus talks to you,” Behar said. “That’s called mental illness if I’m not correct.”

GERMANY - Hardline conservative Friedrich Merz makes a bid for the CDU leadership. A combative old white man who speaks of gays and pedophiles in the same breath, dismisses gender debates as a waste of time and who can’t stand Angela Merkel could hardly be more out of step with the zeitgeist. That hasn’t stopped Friedrich Merz from trying to become Germany’s next chancellor. The bigger surprise is that he has an outside chance of succeeding.

USA - The Pentagon is deploying a nuclear-powered aircraft carrier to the Persian Gulf, CNN national security correspondent Barbara Starr reported Friday. “The aircraft carrier USS Nimitz is being moved back into the Persian Gulf region along with other warships to provide combat support and air cover as US troops withdraw from Iraq and Afghanistan by January 15 under President Trump’s orders a defense official tells CNN,” Starr reported. “The official said the move was decided before news came of the assassination of a prominent Iranian nuclear scientist,” Starr explained. “But the movement of the US forces is an increased deterrence message to Iran regardless the official noted.” “The movement puts increased American military firepower and thousands of personnel into the region through the end of the Trump Administration. It may be up to President-elect Joe Biden to decide when to withdraw them,” she added.

UK - Britain’s armed forces have a far more extensive base network than ever presented by the Ministry of Defence. New research by Declassified reveals the extent of this global military presence for the first time – as the government announces an extra 10% spending on defence. Britain’s military has a permanent presence at 145 base sites in 42 countries or territories around the world, research by Declassified UK has found. The size of this global military presence is far larger than previously thought and is likely to mean that the UK has the second largest military network in the world, after the United States. It is the first time the true size of this network has been revealed.

USA - What have we already learned on this Thanksgiving Day? That we are one vote away, just one little vote, from losing our sacred First Amendment rights, our right to assemble and to worship our God. You don’t need me to tell you — well, maybe if you attended public schools you do — that one of the primary reasons the pilgrims jumped on the Mayflower and came over to this continent was to escape the religious persecution of fascists like New York’s Democrat Governor Andrew Cuomo, who flagrantly issued an edict outlawing religious services of more than ten or 25 people, depending on the area.

GERMANY - With Divergent Opinions on Transatlantic Alliance Americans see Germany as a partner on many foreign policy issues, but Germans mostly do not. As the United States and Germany prepare to gain new leadership in 2021, their current relationship remains unbalanced in the minds of their citizenries. In surveys conducted by Pew Research Center and Körber-Stiftung before the US presidential election, an overwhelming majority of Americans continue to say that relations between the two countries are good. At the same time, almost eight-in-ten Germans say the relationship is in poor shape. Since 2017, the proportion of Germans saying that relations with the US are bad has increased 23 percentage points, while Americans’ views of the relationship have remained relatively steady. These findings are in line with previous research, which found that Germans rated the US at a 20-year low, said the US had handled the coronavirus outbreak poorly and held little confidence in President Donald Trump.

GERMANY - Social Democrats in Chancellor Angela Merkel's government have renewed calls for a law to promote democracy inside Germany. Sixty civic groups have said their projects against the far-right need stable funding. Saskia Esken, Social Democratic Party co-leader, on Monday renewed calls from her SPD that the federal parliament adopt a law promoting democracy to help foil what she said was a far-right in Germany intent on eroding society. "We are currently experiencing how right-wing extremists openly attack our democracy," said Esken, accusing Merkel's conservatives of blocking a democracy bill long sought in the Cabinet by Family Affairs Minister Franziska Giffey and Justice Minister Christine Lambrecht, both members of the SPD.

SAUDI ARABIA - Saudi Arabian lawyer and journalist Osama Yamani wrote an article in Okaz, a prominent Arabic Saudi Arabian daily newspaper, maintaining that the true location of the Al Aqsa Mosque described in Koran is in Al Ju’ranah, near Mecca in Saudi Arabia and not on the Temple Mount in Jerusalem.

VATICAN - On December 1, Simon & Schuster is releasing a new book by Pope Francis, with Austen Ivereigh. The book, titled Let Us Dream: The Path to a Better Future, is a series of interview questions given to Pope Francis by British biographer Austen Ivereigh. The interviews cover a wide range of issues, including the death of George Floyd; clerical sexual abuse; historical revisionism by toppling statues; protests against government coronavirus restrictions; persecuted minorities such as Christians, Yazidi, Rohingya, and Uighurs; migrants and refugees; and abortion, according to Crux. Many feel Pope Francis has already revealed himself to be a globalist in many ways, including with his support of the Great Reset, Black Lives Matter, socialism, same-sex civil unions, and radical environmentalism. Excerpts shared of the book show that Pope Francis continues his leftward trajectory as he gives his reflections on the change needed to build a “post-Covid world.”

USA - About six months ago, Twitter quietly hired someone to become the head of product for conversational safety on the platform. You'd think the person in charge of what might be the most difficult task at Twitter would have a predictable skillset: years of experience in and out of academia, politics and programming; an impenetrable wall of media savvy; close ties to the exec suite. You'd be wrong.

UK - Has this been a case of cause and effect? One GP in the UK, Dr David Unwin, has done a great deal of research in this area. He has managed to reverse type-2 diabetes in very nearly 50 percent of his patients by putting them on a diet which is the exact opposite of that promoted by the dietary guidelines. It is high in fat, and low on carbohydrates. Not only did he reverse diabetes, he also achieved significant and long-lasting weight loss.

IRAN - Iran's Zarif blames Israel for assassination of top nuclear scientist. Head of Iran's nuclear program Mohsen Fakhrizadeh, 59, was assassinated in Damavand, east of Tehran, local Iranian news reported on Friday. Iran later confirmed the reports. "The nuclear scientist Mohsen Fakhrizadeh was assassinated today by terrorists," the Iranian Defense Ministry wrote in a statement, while not blaming any specific entity for the incident. However, Iran's foreign minister Mohammad Javad Zarif later stated on Twitter that "serious indication" pointed to Israeli involvement and urged the international community to condemn the attack. A military adviser to Iran's supreme leader Ali Khamenei accused Israel for trying to provoke "a full-blown" war by killing Fakhrizadeh. "In the last days of the political life of their … ally (US President Donald Trump), the Zionists (Israel) seek to intensify pressure on Iran and create a full-blown war," commander Hossein Dehghan tweeted. "We will strike as thunder at the killers of this oppressed martyr and will make them regret their action," Dehghan added.

AUSTRALIA - Legislation introduced in the Victorian Government today could see Christians hit with heavy fines and lengthy jail times for attempting to convert LGBTQ people to Christianity or teaching certain portions of the Bible. The Change or Suppression (Conversion) Practices Prohibition Bill 2020 will empower the Victorian Equal Opportunity and Human Rights Commission to investigate reports of “conversion therapy” practices which may include activities as simple as prayer.

AUSTRALIA - Amnesty International has suggested Christianity must be criminalized in Australia because it is harmful to individuals who identify as LGBTQA+.