USA - Donald Trump has warned European nations that they are under threat of 'civilisational erasure' and will be 'unrecognisable' in the next 20 years. The US president brutally criticised long-established allies as he unveiled his long-awaited national security strategy that sharply changes US priorities in line with his 'America First' worldview. In extraordinary language, the strategy called for 'cultivating resistance' within Europe and said the US wanted to restore 'Western identity'. It also backed hard-right claims that the continent faces 'civilisational erasure' due to migration. 'It is more than plausible that within a few decades at the latest, certain NATO members will become majority non-European,' it said.

USA - The United States wants Europe to take over the majority of NATO's defense capabilities by 2027, Pentagon officials told diplomats in Washington this week. The message, recounted by five sources familiar with the discussion, including a US official, was conveyed at a meeting in Washington this week of Pentagon staff overseeing NATO policy and several European delegations. The shifting of this burden from the US to European members of the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation would dramatically change how the United States, a founding member of the post-war alliance, works with its most important military partners. In the meeting, Pentagon officials indicated that Washington was not yet satisfied with the strides Europe has made to boost its defense capabilities since Russia began its war on Ukraine in 2022.

USA - Elon Musk has called for the EU to be “abolished” after the bloc fined his social media platform X €120 million (£105 million). In a series of posts on the site, the billionaire lashed out at the officials who handed out the punishment for transparency breaches and threatened to pursue each country individually. “The EU should be abolished and sovereignty returned to individual countries, so that governments can better represent their people,” he wrote. Hours later, Donald Tusk, the Polish prime minister, wrote on X: “Dear American friends, Europe is your closest ally, not your problem. And we have common enemies. At least that’s how it has been in the last 80 years. We need to stick to this; this is the only reasonable strategy for our common security. Unless something has changed.” His response comes amid growing frustration within the White House about the direction of the European Union.

UKRAINE - Volodymyr Zelensky said just hours before the strike that Ukraine and US delegates had carried out "constructive" peace talks. Russia launched yet another deadly attack on Ukraine in the early hours of Sunday - hours after Ukraine met with US delegates to find peace terms Kyiv could agree to. The shameless Kremlin launched yet another strike on civil infrastructure, causing power and water outages in the city of Kremenchuk. Vitalii Maltskyi, the mayor of Kremenchuk, a major industrial hub in central Ukraine, said the city had been repeatedly struck in a "massive" attack. Residents in the city, which is home to one of Ukraine's biggest oil refineries, reported hearing explosions and the mayor said water, electricity and heat had been cut off for some.

CHINA - China’s brazen attempts to stake territorial claims in waters around Asia have been revealed in satellite photos showing a flotilla in the Philippine Sea. The images offer one of the clearest views yet of Chinese maritime expansion, with two destroyers, a landing helicopter dock ship, a replenishment ship and a helicopter in flight. The vessels have been identified as the Hainan, the largest amphibious warship in the Chinese navy, a Jiangkai II guided-missile frigate, the Yan’an Type 055 destroyer, and the Luomahu replenishment ship. Beijing has ordered a huge naval build-up in disputed waters, sparking concern among its neighbours.

ISRAEL - Spain, Ireland and the Netherlands boycotting the Eurovision Song Contest due to Israel’s inclusion in the competition is only the latest attempt to “cancel” the Jewish state over its war against Hamas. Indeed, only this week, it emerged that Guinness World Records had informed the Matnat Chaim charity that its plans to bring together 2,000 people to donate kidneys couldn’t become an official record because it is an Israeli organisation. The London-based organisation claimed this was fair, as it was also banning submissions from the Palestinian territories unless they were done in co-operation with the UN (an organisation with which Israel now refuses to work due to perceived bias). Guinness World Records justified its policy on the basis of “just how sensitive this is at the moment”. “Sensitivity” has become a familiar refrain, as Israel has been cancelled by individuals and organisations in almost every area of public life since Hamas’s attack on the country on October 7 2023.

AUSTRALIA - The state of New South Wales has declared a state of natural disaster across numerous regions as catastrophic conditions continue. Nearly 60 fires are currently burning in the Australian state of NSW, with 1,500 firefighters deployed across the state to wage war against the flames, the NSW Rural Fire Service has confirmed. 20 of those fires are deemed as out-of-control, with catastrophic conditions in recent days resulting in hundreds of hectares catching aflame. High winds, scorching temperatures, and even thunderstorms are exacerbating conditions in NSW, with Australia's Bureau of Meteorology (BoM) registering some of the highest temperatures since 2020, when, incidentally, horrendous bushfires shocked the world and devastated Australia.

ISRAEL - The IDF began strikes on Hezbollah targets in southern Lebanon on Thursday afternoon, following the military's Arabic-language spokesperson Colonel Avichay Adraee's urgent evacuation notice to locals. The IDF announced that it struck several Hezbollah weapons storage facilities in civilian areas. "The presence of the weapons storage facilities constituted a violation of the understandings between Israel and Lebanon." IDF tells Lebanese civilians to flee strike areas. "The IDF will attack military infrastructure belonging to the terrorist Hezbollah in various areas of southern Lebanon in the near term to address the prohibited attempts by Hezbollah to rebuild its activities in the region," Adraee said, warning that remaining in the area would expose individuals to danger.

USA - A regime change war in Venezuela would be disastrous for the US president. After the US Navy authorised a second round of strikes against an alleged Venezuelan drug boat, President Donald Trump declared that the US was at “war” with drug cartels in the South American country. Trump warned of imminent strikes on terrestrial targets and suggested that other Latin American countries could become theatres of US military activity. While the US used anti-narcotics as a pretext for military action in Venezuela, its offensive actions could have a much further-reaching agenda. While the US is right to be alarmed by Venezuela’s trajectory, its anti-narcotics justification for military action is flimsy. Venezuela is a minor player in the drug trade to the US and does not serve as a large-scale trans-shipment point for Colombian cocaine.

USA - Challenger, Gray & Christmas said layoff plans totaled 71,321 in November, a step down from the massive cuts announced in October but still enough to bring the 2025 total up to 1.17 million. Announced job cuts from US employers moved further ahead of 1 million for the year in November as corporate restructuring, artificial intelligence and tariffs have helped pare job rolls, consulting firm Challenger, Gray & Christmas reported Thursday. November offered some relief from the more than 153,000 cuts announced in October, which was the highest total for the month in 22 years.