EUROPE - European Jewish Association Chairman Rabbi Menachem Margolin warned that soon “there will be no kosher meat available in Europe,” following the EU Court of Justice’s Thursday decision that approved a ban on Kosher slaughtering. The Jewish Chronicle quoted Bini Guttmann, president of the European Union of Jewish Students, who suggested the ruling would “make Jewish life in Europe as we know it impossible."

EUROPE - The European Union's top court has deemed kosher and halal slaughter incompatible with animal welfare. This is a grim day for religious freedom in Europe, writes Christoph Strack. In Europe, leaders often laud the continent's Judaeo-Christian heritage. Not only that, 75 years after the industrial mass murder of European Jews in the Shoa, German and European leaders celebrate the return of flourishing Jewish life on the continent. They welcome the fact that liberal, conservative and orthodox Jews are once more part of Europe's social fabric. But for how much longer, given the European Court of Justice (ECJ) ruling that upheld a ban on kosher and halal slaughter in Belgium? The practice is only banned in two or three Belgian regions.

SINGAPORE - Commercial cultured meat has made its global market debut after climate-conscious teens got served premium-priced nuggets made from vat-grown chicken meat at a luxurious Singapore restaurant. On Saturday evening, the 1880 restaurant in Robertson Quay, a posh entertainment district in Singapore, began serving a special kind of dish. The diners were served what are basically chicken nuggets, but not a single chick died for them. The meat was cultured from chicken muscle cells in a lab and, according to the supplying company, previews a titanic change in the global food industry. With traditionally produced meats likely to be taxed based on their carbon footprint, poorer people who still want their protein intake to come from animals may be left with the third option – insects. Advocates say bugs can make for more efficient farming and their diseases are less likely to affect humans, so crickets or larvae, not slaughter-free nuggets, may be the mass food of the future.

EUROPE - Brussels plans to drop rules preventing some countries from serving up insects and worms for human consumption. I know that getting a food delivery is tough at the moment, but are we really desperate to swap crisps for crickets? Probably best not to read this while you’re eating but, with the news being wall-to-wall Covid-19 at the moment, a little story may have passed you by. While most of the world is consumed by the fight against the pandemic, the European Union is quietly set to authorise the sale of insects for human consumption. At some point over the next few weeks, its Food Safety Authority is expected to allow mealworms, locusts, and adult crickets onto our plates. Companies won’t just be doling out bags of freshly fried crickets, either: burgers, granola and even pasta have all been made out of such creepy crawlies. This is presumably because they think it will be easier for us to wolf down worms provided that they look more like normal food. And not wriggly things that just came out of the earth.

USA - Anti-Christian vitriol is rising out of the radical Democrat left and is more clearly framing a coming religious war in America that blames Christians for impeding the “progress” of a dark agenda. The Scientism that underpins Technocracy and Transhumanism only recognizes scientific truth while specifically excluding Biblical truth as mythical, unfounded and dangerous.

USA - Donald Trump has lashed out at Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, who congratulated President-elect Joe Biden, saying it was “too soon to give up.” McConnell’s move has already angered the president’s most loyal supporters. “Republican Party must finally learn to fight. People are angry!” he wrote. The remark came in response to a statement made by McConnell on Tuesday in which he acknowledged Biden’s win after the electoral college vote, congratulating him and Vice President-elect Kamala Harris. “The Electoral College has spoken,” McConnell said, noting that “as of this morning, our country has a president-elect and a vice president-elect” even though “many millions of us had hoped the presidential election would yield a different result.” Apart from publicly acknowledging Biden’s victory, McConnell has reportedly privately warned fellow Republican senators against challenging the election results, urging them to not dispute the Electoral College decision during the upcoming joint session of Congress to confirm the results. The session is scheduled to take place on January 6.

USA - Twitter has declared that it will remove all posts that suggest there are any “adverse impacts or effects of receiving vaccinations,” despite reports already emerging of health workers getting sick from taking Pfizer’s coronavirus shot. Twitter announced that beginning next week it will memory-hole any posts that “invoke a deliberate conspiracy” or “advance harmful, false, or misleading narratives” about vaccines. “Using a combination of technology and human review, we will begin enforcing this updated policy on December 21, and expanding our actions during the following weeks,” the company proclaimed. Twitter added that it will be monitoring posts about vaccinations “in close consultation with local, national, and global public health authorities around the world.”

USA - A few months ago, a company called Capella Space launched a satellite capable of taking clear radar images of anywhere in the world, with incredible resolution — even through the walls of some buildings. And unlike most of the huge array of surveillance and observational satellites orbiting the Earth, its satellite Capella 2 can snap a clear picture during night or day, rain or shine.

USA - The Energy Department and National Nuclear Security Administration, which maintains the US nuclear weapons stockpile, have evidence that hackers accessed their networks as part of an extensive espionage operation that has affected at least half a dozen federal agencies, officials directly familiar with the matter said. On Thursday, DOE and NNSA officials began coordinating notifications about the breach to their congressional oversight bodies after being briefed by Rocky Campione, the chief information officer at DOE. They found suspicious activity in networks belonging to the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC), Sandia and Los Alamos national laboratories in New Mexico and Washington, the Office of Secure Transportation at NNSA, and the Richland Field Office of the DOE. The hackers have been able to do more damage at FERC than the other agencies, and officials there have evidence of highly malicious activity, the officials said, but did not elaborate.

USA - Abortion rights activists known as The Satanic Temple (TST) announced Wednesday they have posted billboards in Texas and Florida to promote what they call their “religious abortion ritual.” The Satanic Temple claims its members may undergo “first-trimester abortions upon demand in states that have enacted the Religious Freedom Restoration Act (RFRA).”

USA - As some 60 million Americans on the east coast prepare for the worst nor'easter in a decade, nearly 84 million across the US are experiencing some level of drought. The west and southwest areas were hit with a drought this past spring that continued and intensified through the summer, fall and now into the winter months. A number of southwest states, including Arizona, Utah, Colorado, New Mexico and west Texas, are experiencing an exceptionally prolonged period of abnormally low rain fall – 30 percent of the US is currently ranked at this level. NASA meteorologists say it is unlikely to improve anytime soon as La Niña is looming over these regions and is causing dry weather in the southwest.

EUROPE - The money will make the EU the third biggest investor in defence research in Europe and give it firepower to reduce the longstanding reliance on US military technology. The new defence fund is part of a broader strategy by the EU to flex its geopolitical influence in the world and to cover gaps in the EU’s defence system left uncovered by the US, as the outgoing administration of president Donald Trump has disengaged from the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO) and pressured EU member states to increase their defence budgets to 2% of their GDP. Very few countries have achieved this target.

VATICAN - Rothschild Investment Group Partners with Vatican to rebrand communism as ‘Inclusive Capitalism’. The Council for Inclusive Capitalism with the Vatican (“the Council”), a historic new partnership was launched today between some of the world’s largest investment and business leaders — most notably the Rothschilds — and the Vatican:

ISRAEL - Despite the relentless COVID propaganda in the Israeli press — including Prime Minister Netanyahu allegedly agreeing to be the first in Israel to be vaccinated — the vast majority of Jews in Israel do not plan to get the COVID vaccine when it becomes available to the public in late December: Israelis who choose to get vaccinated against coronavirus will receive “free movement” waivers, allowing them to bypass certain health restrictions, the Health Ministry has said.

VATICAN - Pope Francis will step down before the end of the year, according to a source close to the Vatican, who said there was "no doubt" the Pontiff "will resign in 2020". The 83-year-old became head of the Catholic Church following the resignation of Pope Benedict XVI – a controversial move and the first of its kind in more than 500 years. However, a source close to Pope Francis claimed he would only serve for seven years, stating he would follow in the footsteps of his predecessor. Austen Ivereigh is the former Director for Public Affairs of the previous Archbishop of Westminster, Cardinal Cormac Murphy-O'Connor and continues to work closely with the Vatican. He said: “I don’t think there’s ever been any doubt that he will resign in 2020. He made clear from the beginning that he regarded Pope Benedict’s (XVI) act as a prophetic act of great modesty and he would have absolutely no problem in doing the same." If Mr Ivereigh is correct, it suggests Francis could resign after Christmas so as to avoid letting his papacy run into 2021.