POLAND - Tens of thousands of far-righters march in ‘independence’ parade calling for ‘Polish Intifada’. The march also drew anti-abortion and anti-LGBT activists, with some demonstrators chanting in support of the “regular family,” the Notes From Poland website reported. Anti-immigration was another major theme of the event, with Ziemowit Przebitkowski of the ultra-nationalist All-Polish Youth group telling Poles that it was important to foster “national morals” and stop mass immigration. The so-called independence march has grown to attract the attention and participation of far-right groups and figures from around the world. This year, activists from the far-right Italian Forza Nuova group and hardline activists from Hungary also took part. Poland is increasingly polarized since the nationalist Law and Justice (PiS) party took power four years ago promising a revival of patriotism and traditional Catholic values.

USA - US Air Force Veteran Rob Henderson penned a column for the Wall Street Journal this week in which he made the case that veterans feel betrayed by colleges and universities that seek to undermine American values. Henderson expressed concern that campus activists actively seek to destroy the American values that veterans have risked their lives to defend. Henderson noted that college students often boast about their opposition to basic American values, like the First and Second Amendments.

CANADA - Polar bears have become the poster child for climate change, their population supposedly devastated by shrinking ice cover. But when one zoologist disproved the myth, she came under the inquisition of the climate church. Zoologist and polar bear expert Susan Crockford was shunned by the academy for her insistence that despite the polar bear’s status as a climate change icon, the warming planet had actually caused the species to thrive. She did not deny climate change – merely the idea that it was harming the bears. After losing her contract as an adjunct professor at Canada’s University of Victoria, where she worked for 15 years, she has been vindicated by a report from northern Canada confirming her theory that polar bears are climate change’s beneficiaries, rather than its victims.

USA - Experts are warning us that this will be a “freezing, frigid, and frosty” winter, and even though the official beginning of winter is still over a month away, it already feels like that in much of the country right now. Over the next several days, it will literally feel like it is mid-January in much of the central and eastern portions of the United States. Many areas will be hit by temperatures that are 30 degrees below normal, and heavy snow is expected in some areas of the Midwest. Unfortunately, this bitterly cold weather is coming at a very bad time for corn farmers. According to the latest USDA crop progress report, only 52 percent of the corn in the middle of the country has been harvested. So about half of the corn is still sitting out there, and these extraordinarily low temperatures could potentially be absolutely devastating. In essence, this cold front threatens to put an exclamation point on an absolutely horrific year for U.S. farmers.

ICELAND - Hundreds of earthquakes have rocked an Icelandic volcano which was responsible for an eruption with international consequences. Some believe this could be sign of an impending eruption. Many global travellers will still have memories of the last time an Icelandic volcano massively erupted. The 2010 Eyjafjallajökull volcano eruption left 10 million air passengers stranded after grounding flights all around the world and cost the European economy around £4 billion. Flights were grounded for days, leaving millions of people stranded. Such was the strength of the ash cloud that it caused the most air travel disruption since World War Two.

EUROPE - So far 23 EU nations have agreed to join forces as part of a defence cooperation pact, driven by and whose leaders have long-campaigned for greater integration amongst member states. The agreement will add yet another convoluted deal to the bloc, with some nations taking part while others do not. The Permanent Structured Cooperation (PESCO) pact includes commitments to integrate armed forces, a boost in defence spending and the establishment of a joint HQ - and have set aside £4.9 billion (€5.5 billion) to fund research and development into new military hardware and the joint purchase of new equipment.

EUROPE - Leading officials in Brussels are on edge after recent economic forecasts pointed to an imminent collapse of the EU economy. The official forecast predicted that the EU’s economy “looks to be heading towards a protracted period of more subdued growth and muted inflation”. Hordern explained: “The worst is still ahead for the EU. That is the warning from the European Commission after they cut the Euro area growth and inflation outlook for 2020. They blame trade wars and political uncertainties for the dramatic weakness in the region.” She continued: “According to officials, risks remain decidedly to the downside.”

USA - What do you do when you have lost all hope that things will ever turn around? It may still feel like “the economy is booming” for those at the top end of the economic food chain in big coastal cities such as New York and San Francisco, but for millions of hard working Americans in the middle of the country, talk of a “coming recession” is absolutely ludicrous because it already feels like a severe economic depression is happening right now. In America’s heartland, bankruptcies are surging, debt burdens are becoming overwhelming, and suicide rates are spiking to unprecedented levels. We have not seen economic despair this extreme since the last recession... As the cost of living continues to rise much faster than wages do, hard working Americans are increasingly turning to debt in order to make ends meet, and during the next recession many families will not be able to service those debts.

ISRAEL - It’s all about keeping Shabbat. For a 25-hour period beginning at sundown November 15, as many as 1 million Jews from Nashville to Nairobi — and more than 1,500 other cities around the world — will turn off their cellphones and set aside a day of rest, some of them for the first time in their lives, as part of The Shabbat Project. The goal is simple: getting as many Jews as possible to observe one Shabbat together with the hope that their shared experience will lead to a spiritual awakening and a more meaningful, rewarding Jewish life.

AUSTRALIA - Thousands of people are in the path of deadly Australian bushfires that have produced clouds of smoke seen as far away as New Zealand. A seven-day state of emergency has been declared in New South Wales, where strong winds, high temperatures and low humidity have prompted the Rural Fire Service to issue a "catastrophic" fire warning for the greater Sydney region. It's the worst threat level ever issued for Sydney under the current system, which was introduced in 2009. The city is home to around 4.6 million people, but the greatest fire risk lies in rural areas outside the city center. They include the greater Hunter area, Illawarra, and Shoalhaven, which are also facing "catastrophic" fire threats. Satellite images showed smoke billowing more than 4,000 kilometers (2,500 miles) across the Tasman Sea to New Zealand's South Island.

ITALY - Tourists that visit the Colosseum in Rome these days are getting quite a shock. A gigantic statue of a pagan Canaanite deity known as “Molech” has been erected right at the entrance. In ancient times, those that served Molech would literally sacrifice their children to him, and apparently this involved burning them to death. And now a massive statue of this pagan idol is the centerpiece of a new “archaeological exhibition” at the world famous Roman Colosseum. Yes, the exact same Colosseum where countless numbers of Christians were martyred for their faith is now the home for one of the most monstrous pagan deities that the world has ever seen.

UK - Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn and Conservative candidate Boris Johnson are in an epic battle for the soul of Britain. The UK general election is less than 5 weeks away. The winner will change the face of the UK for decades.

USA - This recall is a beast of epic proportions. You may have thought the recent apple recall was crazy but wait until you see the massive scope of this one. More than one hundred vegetable products have been recalled by Mann Packing Company because they may be contaminated with listeria. The massive recall spreads across the United States and Canada. It contains both store brand and private label brands, some of which are organic. The voluntary recall is a response to a notification by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and the Canadian Food Inspection Agency of a potential contamination with Listeria monocytogenes. The recalled products have “Best If Used By” dates from October 11, 2019, to November 16, 2019. Most of these are fresh foods that are ready to eat. It is recommended that if you have any of the recalled products, you dispose of them or return them to the place of purchase.

USA - The cases that concern us the most, however, are foodborne illnesses. Recently both chocolate and frozen berries have been recalled due to potential hepatitis A virus contamination. Who expects to get hepatitis from a snack? While the possibility of contracting hepatitis from a seemingly innocent sweet treat is unnerving, the most common disease-causing organisms that trigger food recalls are bacteria. The three types of bacteria that commonly cause food recalls are E. coli, listeria, and salmonella. Each of these bacteria can make people sick. In some cases, these illnesses can be deadly. They are each considered Class I health risks by the Food Safety and Inspection Service.

Who is to blame? Our centralized, industrialized food system is at the heart of the increase in food contamination and recalls. Modern farming and modern food manufacturing methods are breeding grounds for bacteria.

USA - The US is currently experiencing historically cold weather, with Chicago dropping to a low of around -23F (-30C) on Wednesday – but what is the cause of this extreme drop in temperature? A split in the polar vortex has been identified as the cause of the bitter cold that continued to sweep parts of the country on Thursday. The polar vortex is a mass of cold air that usually stays bottled up in the Arctic. The blast of polar air that enveloped much of the Midwest on Wednesday closed schools and businesses and strained infrastructure with some of the lowest temperatures in a generation. The deep freeze snapped rail lines, canceled hundreds of flights and strained utilities. But when the split occurred, that air spilled and traveled much further south than usual, causing a painfully cold weater system that put much of the Midwest into a historic deep freeze.