GERMANY - German authorities identified over 32,200 right-wing extremists in 2019, according to a report. Much of the rise has to do with authorities counting groups affiliated with the far-right AfD for the first time. Germany's federal domestic intelligence service (BfV) and the state-level intelligence services identified over 32,200 right-wing extremists this year, the paper reported, citing information gathered from security sources. That figure is a third higher compared to 2018, when authorities counted 24,100 people involved in right-wing extremist networks. In January this year, the BfV took aim at the extreme-right faction of the AfD known as "Der Flügel" (The Wing) as well as the party's youth wing "Junge Alternative" (Young Alternative) over suspected extremism. According to Tagesspiegel, authorities included 7,000 members of the "Der Flügel" in its right-wing extremist count, as well as 1,000 members of the "Junge Alternative."

POLAND - Poland may be forced to part ways with the EU if a controversial judicial reform championed by the ruling Law and Justice party (PiS) comes to fruition, despite vocal opposition from Brussels, Poland’s Supreme Court warned on Tuesday. “Contradictions between Polish law and EU law... will in all likelihood lead to an intervention by the EU institutions regarding an infringement of the EU treaties, and in the longer perspective [will lead to] the need to leave the European Union,” said the court, which has been at odds with the right-wing government since 2015, when PiS rose to power. EU institutions, namely the European Commission, have been up in arms over the judicial overhaul, which its critics argue would give the PiS sway over the country’s judiciary. The draft law, which is now in parliament, will see judges barred from questioning the independence of their peers who were appointed by the government-controlled panel. Judges could also face repercussions for engaging in 'political activity' under the new law.

USA - A wave of debt in emerging and developing nations has grown faster and larger than in any period of the last five decades and could end with another crisis, the World Bank warned Thursday. And if the wave breaks, it could be more damaging since it would engulf private companies in addition to governments, at a time when economic growth is sluggish, according to a new report that covers four debt surges from 1970-2018. "The size, speed and breadth of the latest debt wave should concern us all," World Bank President David Malpass said in a statement. "Clearly, it's time for course corrections," he added. The World Bank and International Monetary Fund have been sounding the warning about growing global debt for years, but the latest report is even more stark and turned up the volume on its calls for governments to take steps to prevent a debt crisis.

INDIA - In January, an estimated 120 million people gathered at the confluence of three holy rivers in India: the Ganges, the Yamuna, and the mythical Sarasvati. The occasion was the Kumbh Mela, a historic Hindu pilgrimage that occurs just once every 12 years. It is widely considered to be the largest gathering of humans on the planet (and can even be seen from space). “The scale is really something that can’t be captured — it has to be experienced,” the filmmaker Jeremy Snell told me. Overall, the festival is a celebration of Hindu community and tradition. At the center of the immense pop-up tent city is a marketplace offering spiritual lectures and blessings from India’s most revered gurus. For this year’s event, more than 200 miles of new roads were built to accommodate pilgrims traveling from all over India, although many also arrive by boat, carrying their belongings balanced on their head.

USA - Reminiscent of the horror movie, “A Quiet Place” where those who lived in a world overrun by murderous creatures were forced into silence at the peril of their lives, “The Quiet Rooms” has the same ominous ring to it. And with good reason. “Quiet Rooms” are rooms used by schools to seclude a student with “problem behaviors” in a (sometimes) padded cell behind a locked door. Horrifying, right? It’s like solitary confinement, but for children. No, wait. Let me correct that. It IS solitary confinement. For children. As if the statistically proven school to prison pipeline isn’t enough, let’s get a 5-year-old used to being locked in a room as punishment! Sounds like a great idea. If that’s not enough, some school administrators and professionals who implement this practice call it just that, “serving time,” according to a report from the Chicago Tribune titled The Quiet Rooms.

USA - “Doctors put drugs of which they know little into bodies of which they know less for diseases of which they know nothing at all.” Voltaire.

“If I could live my life over again, I would devote it to proving that germs seek their natural habitat, diseased tissue, rather than being the cause of disease.” Rudolf Virchow, father of modern pathology.

USA - A whistleblower with the Transportation Security Administration is sounding the alarm about loosened security at US airports, charging that top TSA officials have prioritized speed over security by reducing the sensitivity of metal detectors, disabling technology on some X-ray machines, issuing orders to keep the baggage conveyor belts moving in certain circumstances and ordering policy changes that result in fewer pat-downs. Jay Brainard, the highest-ranking TSA official in Kansas, has notified the highest reaches of the TSA as well as outside federal regulatory bodies about the matter, but says little is being done. He believes the relaxed security rules that have occurred over the past couple of years are putting US passengers at risk. "My biggest fear is having something happen that costs American lives, and I didn't step up and put a stop to it," Brainard told CNN this week. "It's not a question of if, it's a question of when. We are long overdue for an attack."

AUSTRALIA - Australia is facing a massive bill from unprecedented, deadly fires that have burned an area bigger than Belgium. Insurers have received claims worth A$240m (£126m; $165m) since October, and they expect the number will grow significantly. Medical bills from the fires and smoke haze could also run into the hundreds of millions. And one analysis suggests disruptions caused by the fire and smoke haze could cost Sydney as much as A$50m a day. The bush fires have killed eight people. There appears to be no reprieve in sight, as temperatures are expected to hit 40C on the weekend, stoking fears of more fires. 700 houses have been destroyed by the fires. 2,306 insurance claims have been made up to mid-December. A$240m is the value of those claims.

USA - The Democrats got what they wanted, but in the process they have created deep political fissures that will never heal. Now that President Trump has been impeached by the House, he will eventually be acquitted by the Senate, and so his political career will survive. But far more importantly, it has gotten to the point where nobody can no longer deny that America is at war with itself.

USA - I knew that Americans were dumb, but I didn’t think it was this bad. In the hours after President Trump was impeached by the House of Representatives, thousands of people immediately began wildly celebrating on social media because “Trump is not the president anymore”. But of course that is not true at all. Two-thirds of the Senate will have to vote to convict Trump in order to remove him from office, and at this point that seems exceedingly unlikely. Anyone that has received even the most basic education about the US Constitution should know this, so how is it possible that there are vast hordes of people out there that actually believe that Donald Trump is no longer the president of the United States? This is yet another example that demonstrates how spectacularly our system of public education has failed. This generation has made a mockery of everything that previous generations of Americans worked so hard to build, and our society is literally coming apart at the seams right in front of our eyes.

VATICAN - The pope could resign in 2020, in what would be the final piece of a 900-year-old prophecy marking the end of the world, according to a source close to the Vatican leader. He said in 2013: “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.”

USA - The founding fathers knew that having a [CB] control the currency in the US was not a benefit to the people. The [CB] is a burden on the economy, it does not allow people to thrive, it allows a small portion of the population to reach the top, the majority of the people struggle every single day. The value of currency declines every single day which makes it harder on the people.

VATICAN - Pope Francis presided over the installation of a migrant crucifix in the Vatican Thursday, on which he had a migrant life vest placed on the cross in place of the body of Jesus. The ceremony of the hanging of the new cross took place at the end of a meeting between the pope and a group of 33 migrants that the pontiff had flown over from the Greek island of Lesbos. The life jacket on the cross was recovered adrift in the middle of the Mediterranean Sea last July and is believed to have belonged to a migrant who died at sea. “We are facing another death caused by injustice,” Francis said in his address to the migrants. “Yes, because it is injustice that forces many migrants to leave their lands. It is injustice that forces them to cross deserts and suffer abuse and torture in detention camps. It is injustice that rejects them and makes them die at sea.”

USA - In an attempt to decrease the population of rats in New York City, pest control have managed to create a new generation of “super rats.” According to Jonathan Richardson, from the University of Richmond, although pest control removes most of the rats in a population, the rats that survive the lethal control are genetically more “fit.” Jonathan, who studies urban rats in New York City, has found that the survivors are more likely to have traits that make them able to avoid the onslaught of exposure to rodenticides and traps. These survivors then produce baby rats, which inherit the same helpful traits. Scientists have since identified specific genes in the “super rats” that render common rodenticides ineffective.

USA - Teen Vogue is ringing in the Christmas season with gift recommendations for transgender loved ones that encourage surgery and other forms of body mutilation to treat the psychological condition of gender dysphoria. The online magazine, whose past primary mission was to provide teen girls with makeup tricks and fashion notes, now fancies itself totally “woke” as it blames the Trump administration for whatever misfortune happens to individuals who claim to be uncomfortable with their biological sex.