EUROPE - French President Emmanuel Macron said yesterday the Brexit vote had shone a harsh spotlight on growing divisions in many modern democracies, but said it was impossible to compare the wave of discontent sweeping France and Britain’s decision to leave Europe. Earlier on Sunday, Mr Macron also stressed that Britain's Brexit vote showed that the European Union urgently needed reform. He said: “We must draw the consequences that show that the European Union has a fragile side, it can be improved …. It shows that our Europe needs to be rebuilt and that is the option I support and will continue to work towards.” The loss of faith in the European project and its leaders has become increasingly widespread, boosting the visibility of anti-EU leaders who have promised to unite against the bloc’s progressives in next May’s European Parliament elections.

USA - US Ambassador to Israel David Friedman denied on Monday that the administration is considering postponing the publication of its much-awaited peace proposal, saying that the plan will be released whenever it has the best chance of success. “I would like to reaffirm that the United States remains committed to sharing its vision for peace with Israel, the Palestinians and other regional and international stakeholders at the appropriate time,” he said in a rare written statement posted to the website of the US Embassy.

EUROPE - On 30 November and 1 December, world leaders will meet in Buenos Aires to wrap up the G20’s work in 2018 and issue a leaders' declaration with a focus on fair and sustainable development. The G20 brings together 19 countries plus the EU. G20 members account for over 80% of the world's gross domestic product (GDP) and they host almost two-thirds of the world’s population. The G20 was established in 2008 amidst the global financial crisis to increase international economic cooperation. Since then, G20 members have been meeting annually to discuss a wide range of issues related to economic and financial cooperation. The EU is a G20 member. The European Union is a full member of the G20 alongside four of its member states: France, Germany, Italy and the United Kingdom.

USA - The Commission on National Defense Strategy for the US has just released to Congress its report "Providing for the Common Defense”, and it opens: “In the National Defense Authorization Act of 2017, Congress charged this Commission with providing an independent, nonpartisan review of the 2018 National Defense Strategy and issues of US defense strategy and policy more broadly.” The report’s co-chairs, Eric S Edelman and Gary Roughead, say in their accompanying letter to Congress, that “the United States will soon face a national security emergency.”

USA - Twitter has stepped up its war on reality. Last week, it permanently banned a feminist who committed the unconscionable sin of repeatedly insisting that men aren't women. This past weekend the company clarified its stance on the issue. According to the new rules, you are not allowed to engage in any "slurs" or "tropes" that might offend transgender individuals. These "slurs" and "tropes" include "misgendering" and "deadnaming" a transgender person. Of course, "misgender" means referring to a person by their biological (read: actual) sex. "Deadnaming" sounds like a codeword the CIA might use, but apparently it means calling a "transgender woman" by his original male name, or a "transgender man" by her original female name. Any of these "offenses" might earn you a permanent ban from the platform.

USA - The results of fourth wave feminism begin to appear. Marriage is dying, people are living isolated lonely lives. The stress on American society will be immense as these trends continue. Three waves of feminism have restructured gender relations in the US, with changes whose effects are yet to be seen. Especially fourth wave feminism, women’s pursuit of dominance over men. Marriage rates are falling for all ages. Cohabitation rates have risen, but not enough to offset the decline. Since most sex occurs in these relationships, people are having less sex.

GERMANY - German Chancellor Angela Merkel has said that European Union (EU) member states must be prepared to transfer powers over to Brussels at a debate on the ‘tensions’ between globalisation and national sovereignty. “Nation states must today be prepared to give up their sovereignty,” Merkel said, speaking at an event organised by the Konrad Adenauer Foundation in Berlin on Wednesday. “In an orderly fashion of course,” Merkel said, explaining that — while Germany had given up some of its sovereignty in order to join the EU, national parliaments were in charge of deciding whether to sign up to international treaties.

EUROPE - EU leaders have approved an agreement on the UK's withdrawal and future relations - insisting it is the "best and only deal possible". After 20 months of negotiations, the 27 leaders gave the deal their blessing after less than an hour's discussion. They said the deal - which needs to be approved by the UK Parliament - paved the way for an "orderly withdrawal". Theresa May said the deal "delivered for the British people" and set the UK "on course for a prosperous future". Speaking in Brussels, she urged both Leave and Remain voters to unite behind the agreement, insisting the British public "do not want to spend any more time arguing about Brexit". The UK is scheduled to leave the EU on 29 March 2019. The UK Parliament is expected to vote on the deal on 12th December, but its approval is far from guaranteed.

EUROPE - EU leaders have signed off on the Brexit agreement negotiated with Theresa May, described as “the worst deal in history” by Leavers. The Remain-voting Prime Minister’s deal with the European Union — if ratified by the British Parliament and European Parliament — could condemn the United Kingdom to “perpetual purgatory” or even no Brexit at all, as Britain’s departure would be followed by a lengthy “transition” period in which it would remain subject to all the rules and regulations of an EU member-state, but without representation in the EU’s institutions.

EUROPE - EU leaders have warned British MPs that Prime Minister Theresa May's Brexit deal is the "only deal possible" after approving it at a summit in Brussels on Sunday. But what will happen if the UK Parliament rejects the deal? The 27 EU leaders said today they won’t start new negotiations if Mrs May loses the vote in parliament, which is due to take place on December 12.

USA - Halloween has passed, and as Christmas approaches, millions around the world will celebrate the birth of Jesus Christ. But news outlets are referencing a 2014 Pew Research Center survey on religion and the rising number of those who practice witchcraft in the US, saying that witches now outnumber Presbyterians in the country. “Experts believe that the explosion in the witch population is due to millennial women’s embracing of new-age spirituality, mindfulness, meditation, and yoga,” the Daily Mail reported in its witchcraft coverage last week. Wicca is recognized as an official religion in the United States. “Experts say that one does not need to be a Wicca or Pagan in order to be a witch, meaning that the actual number of those who practice witchcraft may be higher,” the Mail reported.

UK - Badly behaved toddlers are being branded mentally unwell, a major NHS report reveals which claims that one in 18 preschoolers is suffering from a psychological condition. The first official survey of children’s mental health since 2004 concludes that hundreds of thousands of two to four-year-olds have “at least one mental disorder”. But the report was also criticised by experts for inappropriately “medicalising” unruly behaviour. Meanwhile a third of girls and nearly a quarter of boys with mental health disorders were found to spend more than four hours a day on social media. This compared to 12 per cent of other children.

UK - All modern humans descended from a solitary pair who lived 100,000 to 200,000 years ago, scientists say. Scientists surveyed the genetic 'bar codes' of five million animals - including humans - from 100,000 different species and deduced that we sprang from a single pair of adults after a catastrophic event almost wiped out the human race. These bar codes, or snippets of DNA that reside outside the nuclei of living cells, suggest that it's not just people who came from a single pair of beings, but nine out of every 10 animal species, too. Stoeckle and Thaler, the scientists who headed the study, concluded that ninety percent of all animal species alive today come from parents that all began giving birth at roughly the same time, less than 250 thousand years ago - throwing into doubt the patterns of human evolution. 

UK - Pledge host Maajid Nawaz has criticised French President Emmanuel Macron and German Chancellor Angela Merkel for their “tone deaf” attitude to an EU army as a centralist European army is a “scary idea.” Earlier this month Emmanuel Macon announced that France’s need for a European army stemmed from the need to protect themselves from China, Russia and the United States of America.

ISRAEL - Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Saturday hit back against President Hassan Rouhani after the Iranian leader called Israel a “cancerous tumor” established by Western countries to advance their interests in the Middle East. “Israel knows very well how to defend itself from the murderous Iranian regime,” said Netanyahu, in a statement. “Rouhani’s slander, which calls for the destruction of Israel, proves yet again why the nations of the world need to join in the sanctions against the Iranian terrorist regime which threatens them,” charged the prime minister.