SWITZERLAND - The World Economic Forum (WEF) has revealed its Davos 2021 Agenda, confirming the annual gathering of political and business elites next month will be a digital event heralding the public unveiling of its Great Reset Initiative. In a preview to the digital “Davos Dialogues”, the WEF asserts, “The time to rebuild trust and to make crucial choices is fast approaching as the need to reset priorities and the urgency to reform systems grow stronger around the world.”

USA - Russia acted with impunity when it hacked US government servers in a global cyber-espionage campaign and could do far more damage next time — like cutting off the nation’s water and electricity supply, GOP Senator Mitt Romney said Sunday. Speaking on NBC’s “Meet the Press,” the Utah senator said the massive cyberattack discovered earlier this week, which officials say could be the biggest hack on the American government ever, must be met with a vigorous response and without delay. “They potentially have the capacity to cripple us economically, they went to our businesses. They have the potential to also cripple us with regards to our water and electricity and so forth.” Romney added: “They don’t need rockets to take those things out.” Officials say the breach could potentially endanger American security for years to come. While President Trump surmised the attack might have come from China, security officials in his administration pointed directly to Russia. “We can say pretty clearly that it was the Russians who were responsible,” Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said Friday.

USA - The Trump Administration is spending some of its last days in office provoking a debate about building a larger and more lethal US Navy to check China in the Pacific. This political document arrives late, but give the Trump Team credit for issuing this challenge to President-elect Joe Biden. National Security Adviser Robert O’Brien and budget director Russ Vought recently laid out on these pages a plan to reach a 355-ship Navy in about a decade, up from roughly 295 today. The Pentagon has been debating and studying how to expand the fleet, and the Trump plan suggests underwriting more than 80 ships over five years at a cost of $147 billion. Meanwhile, a September Pentagon report said China has reached parity with or exceeded the US in shipbuilding, certain missiles and integrated air-defense systems. That ought to concern Americans who have been used to naval dominance since the end of World War II. Joe Biden might prefer to talk about expanding health insurance or forgiving student loans, but his first obligation is to keep America safe and its global interests secure.

USA - President Trump took to the airwaves to describe what was pumped into the so-called “COVID-19 Relief Bill” that Congress sent him last night. In it, he detailed multiple examples of legislative pork that Congress tried to ram down everyone’s throat. He concluded by saying he will not sign the bill unless it is tremendously amended. “The $900 billion package provides hard-working taxpayers with only $600 each in relief payments. and not enough money is given to small businesses, and in particular restaurants whose owners have suffered so grievously,” he said. “Congress found plenty of money for foreign countries, lobbyists, and special interests while sending the bare minimum to the American people who need it,” he said. “It wasn’t their fault. It was China’s fault.”

UK - Another mutant strain of coronavirus has been found in Britain after entering from South Africa, ministers revealed today as they plunged millions more families into Tier 4 from Boxing Day. The variant of the virus is the second one to be announced by the Government in as many weeks and this one is even more infectious than the last, which is thought to have emerged in Kent, Health Secretary Matt Hancock claimed today. Mr Hancock this afternoon told the remaining parts of the South East not already in the toughest level of restrictions they would be in it little more than 48 hours from now, with new restrictions coming into force at midnight on Christmas Day.

UK - According to the British Retail Consortium, around 30 percent of the food consumed across the UK comes from the European Union. Half of all fresh vegetables, and almost all of our fruit, is imported from EU countries. The National Farmers' Union says the UK imports 45 percent of its vegetables, the vast majority of which come from the EU. Spain is the biggest supplier of fruit to the UK, making up around 19 percent of all imports. The 30 percent figure is a yearly average - in the winter, around half of all the UK’s food is imported, according to the Food and Drink Federation. The English channel is a vital and extremely busy trade route, with some 10,000 lorries travelling across the border every day during the Christmas period.

USA - Google informs children when their parents are monitoring their account activity, the tech giant confirmed this month, with the company claiming that doing so is a way of balancing the interests of both parents and children. Google's child-notification policies received attention when film director Robby Starbuck claimed on Twitter that his 7-year-old child had received a warning from Google that his account was being monitored. "Our 7-year-old son has to have google for homeschooling," Starbuck wrote on Twitter, "so naturally we setup parental controls but look what [Google] did. They sent my son an email to tell him his privacy is important to them and telling him we’re supervising his account."

UK - The UK’s virus mutation is nothing but recycled alarmism, with no substance to justify the cancellation of Christmas and plunging us all into yet more misery. It’s unscientific, unjustifiable and unforgivable. Let me set the scene. The world (we are told) is in the grip of a deadly plague. Health services (we are told) are on the brink of collapse. And just when you think things cannot get any worse, the horrific news comes down from on high that our invisible enemy has mutated into an even scarier form. Although it is too early to know anything of substance about it, it is entirely possible that it is more contagious, or more dangerous, or – who knows – maybe both.

UK - The new Covid-19 variant that has ripped through the South East is 70 per cent more contagious than the original strain, Boris Johnson revealed today. The PM today revealed the "frighteningly transmissable" new variant was spreading rapidly - forcing him to put millions of Brits in Tier 4 lockdown for Christmas.

UK - Boris Johnson was last night urged to publish clear evidence of the Covid data he used to cancel Christmas for millions. The Prime Minister has warned the new variant of coronavirus may be up to 70 per cent more transmissible than previous strains and could overwhelm the NHS. But last night one scientist demanded greater transparency over the number that shut down swathes of the UK.

SWITZERLAND - The World Health Organization has finally confirmed what we (and many experts and studies) have been saying for months – the coronavirus is no more deadly or dangerous than seasonal flu. The WHO’s top brass made this announcement during a special session of the WHO’s 34-member executive board on Monday October 5th, it’s just nobody seemed to really understand it. In fact, they didn’t seem to completely understand it themselves.

USA - Well, here we go again. The US House of Representatives just passed a $900 billion stimulus package, and we are being promised that it will provide a real “boost” to the economy. Of course we were told the exact same thing about all of the other “stimulus packages” that have been passed since the beginning of the pandemic. Most importantly to many Americans, $600 stimulus payments will soon be sent out directly to the American people. If you are married and have three kids, you will get a total of $3,000, because each member of your family is counted equally for this round of stimulus payments.

MIDDLE EAST - A US guided-missile submarine passed through the Strait of Hormuz, the Navy said Monday, in a rare disclosure of the movements of one of the United States’s nuclear-powered submarines. The USS Georgia submarine, along with guided-missile cruisers USS Port Royal and USS Philippine Sea, entered the Persian Gulf through the Strait of Hormuz on Monday, according to a news release from US Naval Forces Central Command. “Georgia’s presence in the US 5th Fleet area of operations (AOO) demonstrates the US Navy’s ability to sail and operate wherever international law allows,” the release said.

UK - Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s new Special Envoy on Freedom of Religion or Belief (FoRB) has been praised by Catholic charity Aid to the Church in Need as “a doughty defender of religious freedom”. Ms Bruce, an Anglican and an evangelical, said in a press release announcing her appointment: “There is much to do, and my post will be placed at the service of some of the most vulnerable people across the world.” She continued: “This appointment comes in the light of continuing large scale horrors taking place – such as those against Uighur Muslims in China, Rohingya Muslims in Myanmar and Yazidis in Iraq and at a time when, as the late and much respected former Chief Rabbi, Jonathan Sacks, stated, ‘the persecution of Christians throughout much of the Middle East, sub-Saharan Africa and Asia, and elsewhere, is one of the crimes against humanity of our time.’”

JAPAN - The Japanese government has approved a hike in military spending to address an “increasingly tough” security environment, as the country struggles under the world's largest debt and the pandemic-induced economic slump. Japan's cabinet approved on Monday the record-high $1.03 trillion budget proposal for the next fiscal year starting in April 2021. The package includes a stimulus for the economy which has been severely affected by the coronavirus pandemic and a hike in defense spending.