EUROPE - Michel Barnier denies reports that divorce bill has been agreed as diplomats in Brussels prepare to scrutinise UK proposal. In a second speech in Berlin, he also warned German businesses they should prepare for a scenario where there was no deal between the EU and UK. “The ‘no deal’ scenario is not our scenario. But since it cannot be ruled out, we have to prepare for it,” he told the German Employers’ Association. Diplomats in Brussels, attached to the member states, have been asked to assemble at a meeting on Friday to take the first step in scrutinising the British proposal under which the government accepts there are potential gross liabilities of around £89-billion to meet in respect of commitments made during the UK’s 44-year membership.

RUSSIA - A war breaking out on the Korean Peninsula is one of the scenarios considered by the Russian military, so it would not be blindsided in case it actually happens, the head of Russia’s Security Council said, advocating a diplomatic solution to the crisis. The launch of the Hwasong-15 ballistic missile by North Korea on Wednesday, which Pyongyang claimed is “capable of striking the whole mainland of the US” and Washington’s warning that the test brought the world “closer to war” has again raised concerns about potential disastrous consequences of a direct military confrontation. Nikolay Patrushev, the head of Russia’s National Security Council, said Russia has been weighing its options if the war of words turns into a live shooting war.

ISRAEL - Israeli warplanes struck an Iranian military base near the Syrian capital of Damascus overnight Friday, pro-Assad news outlets have reported. According to the reports, the strikes were carried out from Lebanese airspace and struck near the city of Al-Kiswa, located some 13 kilometers south of Damascus. Speaking to a Saudi publication in November, Israeli chief of staff Lieutenant General Gadi Eisenkot reiterated the Israeli demand for an Iranian retreat from Syria: "Our demand is for Iran and its militias to retreat from Syria. We have said openly, and also quietly and secretly too, that we will not accept Iranian consolidation in Syria. We will not allow any Iranian presence, we have warned them against building factories or military bases and we will not allow it," he said.

MIDDLE EAST - Sunni Arab states including Egypt and Saudi Arabia are pushing Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas to resume negotiations with Israel as part of a wider strategy to confront the region’s growing threat from Iran, a senior Egyptian official told the daily Israel Hayom on Monday. According to the report, the urgency was compounded by Friday’s attack in northern Sinai that left 305 people dead in a Sufi mosque. Egypt has suspicions that some of the terrorists responsible for the bombing and shooting attacks managed to escape to Gaza through underground tunnels dug by the terror group Hamas. The Egyptian official told Israel Hayom that, along with his country, Israel, Jordan, Saudi Arabia and several Gulf states hope to establish a coalition to confront terror groups in the region, including Iranian proxy Hezbollah.

USA - Devotees of science often assume that what is called science is real and true. It must be. Otherwise, their faith is broken. Their superficial understanding is shattered. Their “superior view” of the world is torpedoed. Such people choose unofficial “anti-science” targets to attack. They never think of inspecting their own house for enormous fraud.

USA - When conservative Christian baker Jack Phillips in 2012 politely but firmly told Colorado gay couple David Mullins and Charlie Craig he would not make them a cake to celebrate their wedding, it triggered a chain of events that will climax on Tuesday in highly anticipated US Supreme Court arguments.

UK - People should pray for Prince George to “fall in love with a fine young gentleman”, an Anglican minister has claimed. The Very Rev Kelvin Holdsworth, Provost of St Mary’s Cathedral in Glasgow, said people should pray that the royal is homosexual in an effort to trump up support for same-sex marriage in the Church of England.

JAPAN - Japanese Emperor Akihito will be Japan’s first abdication in nearly two centuries, the monarch’s son said. The much-loved emperor will stand down on April 4, 2019 and he will be immediately succeeded by his son, Prince Naruhito on May 1, 2019. The decision was made at a meeting of the Imperial House Council and announced by Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe on Friday. Japanese Parliament passed a historic bill in June this year that allowed the 83-year-old to abdicate if he chose. It came after Akihito gave a TV interview in August 2016 when he said his age and fitness level could make it "difficult" for him to carry out his duties in the future.

USA - Only 60 Years of Farming Left If Soil Degradation Continues. Generating three centimeters of top soil takes 1,000 years, and if current rates of degradation continue all of the world's top soil could be gone within 60 years, a senior UN official said. About a third of the world's soil has already been degraded, Maria-Helena Semedo of the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) told a forum marking World Soil Day. The causes of soil destruction include chemical-heavy farming techniques, deforestation which increases erosion, and global warming. The earth under our feet is too often ignored by policymakers, experts said. "Soils are the basis of life," said Semedo, FAO's deputy director general of natural resources. "Ninety five percent of our food comes from the soil."

USA - A huge earthquake has struck in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean sparking fears the Big One could be on the way. A massive earthquake measuring 6.7 on the Richter Scale struck in the early hours of Thursday, November 30. The earthquake struck at a depth of 10 kilometres below the ground. 

USA - Baywatch star Pamela Anderson had a bit of a hot take yesterday when she suggested that the women who were sexually abused by Harvey Weinstein might not have been victimized if they were just more careful with him. Anderson spoke with Megyn Kelly on Thursday, where she talked about the sexual abuse she had to overcome as a child. She went on to say that various figures made unscrupulous propositions to her when she first arrived in Hollywood, and it only took common sense to avoid getting involved in complicated situations. “It was common knowledge that certain producers or certain people in Hollywood are people to avoid, privately. You know what you’re getting into if you’re going into a hotel room alone.”

NORTH KOREA - The missile launch at 3 AM Korean time Wednesday was dramatically different from the previous 22 launches that North Korea carried out this year. The Hwasong-15 missile rose 4,475 kilometers (2,780 miles) above the Earth, landing in the Sea of Japan after spending 53 minutes in the air. These figures suggest that this missile, when fired at a shallower trajectory, could achieve a range of anywhere between 10,000 and 13,000 kilometers. 

USA - The Trump administration is considering moving the US embassy in Israel from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem ahead of a legislative deadline this week, a move that would carry serious national security implications and block any genuine revival of an Arab-Israeli peace plan. Greenlighting such a plan would signal US recognition of Jerusalem as Israel's capital, infuriating Palestinians who claim the eastern sector of the city, captured by Israel in 1967, as their capital. Vice President Mike Pence confirmed in a speech this week that the administration is studying the issue.

USA - A prominent Israeli journalist tweeted on Wednesday that Netanyahu’s government expects the United States to recognize Jerusalem as Israel’s capital “perhaps as early as Sunday.” Dana Weiss, the chief political analyst for Channel 2 News and the anchor of her own prime time weekly television magazine program, also wrote that her sources had told her the US would announce plans to move its embassy to Jerusalem.

USA - US diplomats have dropped plans for Donald Trump to conduct a visit to Britain in January amid a war of words between the two countries’ leaders. Mr Trump, the US president, had been penciled in for a ‘working visit’ in the first month of 2018 to formally open America’s new London embassy. The trip, a scaled down version of a state visit with no meeting with the Queen, was intended to allow Mr Trump to come to the UK while avoiding the mass protests a full state visit would likely trigger. However, The Telegraph can reveal that the trip has been pushed into the long grass, with no new date in the diary picked.