SOLOMON ISLANDS - A powerful magnitude 7.0 earthquake has struck near the Solomon Islands, with the Pacific Tsunami Warning Center saying that hazardous waves are possible for several islands in the region, including Papua New Guinea and Vanuatu. The quake struck around 2am GMT on Tuesday, some 56 kilometers (35 miles) southwest of the capital, Honiara. It was followed by a 6.0 aftershock roughly 30 minutes later, as well as several other weaker jolts in the area, according to the United States Geological Survey.

USA - If you had to choose between living under an extremely oppressive world government or living through a nuclear war, which one would be your choice? Personally, I don’t like either of those two options, but in recent days western leaders have been trying to convince us that we will either have one or the other. According to them, either we can submit to a “global order” that is dominated by the values and the agenda of the western elite or we can accept a multipolar world which will eventually lead to widespread chaos and nuclear war. Needless to say, western politicians are going to try very hard to get us to choose the former.

THAILAND - The APEC Summit opened on Friday in Thailand, the last of three world summits hosted in the region this month. Chinese leader Xi Jinping called for stability, peace and the development of a “more just world order.” French President Emmanuel Macron spoke at the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) Summit in Bangkok. This was despite the fact that France is not a member of the APEC nations. Macron is a graduate of the “Young Global Leaders” program of the World Economic Forum. Macron called for a new global order where neither the US nor China side wins.

SWITZERLAND - Last week at the G20 meeting in Indonesia, as US President Joe Biden and Chinese leader Xi Jinping wasted their time talking about global warming, a subject the People’s Republic does not take seriously, instead of the origins of COVID or the status of Taiwan, to my utter astonishment, the face and voice of the “Great Reset” appeared. This is the jargon for the readjustment in the world towards so-called stakeholder capitalism that is the ambition of the conveners of the World Economic Forum (WEF).

USA - Members of the country's largest rail union on Monday rejected a proposed labor contract with freight railroads, resulting in a potential nationwide freight-rail strike amid the holiday season and Congress likely intervening to avert such a shutdown. Congressional lawmakers would have to move quickly to avert a strike, considering they won’t return from Thanksgiving recess until at least November 28.

INDONESIA - President Joe Biden signed a G20 Bali Leaders’ Declaration agreeing to adopt vaccine passports to “facilitate” all international travel. Paragraph 23 of the declaration pertains to “facilitating seamless international travel” by pledging to commit to international dialogue and collaboration to establish “trusted global digital health networks that should capitalize and build on the success of the existing standard and digital COVID-19 certificates.”

UK - Tech giants have axed more than 1,500 UK jobs in a month, as investors claim the sector is facing a reckoning. The brutal cuts from Facebook, Twitter and Amazon come as swathes of firms are also slashing workforces. More than 5,000 staff employed in the UK's tech sector are thought to have been made redundant this year. Smaller companies such as car sales platform Cazoo, trading app Freetrade and buy-now pay-later firm Klarna have also laid off staff. Damien Steel, of the venture capital arm of Canadian pensions titan OMERS, said investors were being more careful about the type of company they funded. 'We are telling founders [of companies we invest in] that it's okay to be conservative. Where before you needed enough cash to last 18 months, we're now saying 36 months at least.'

INDONESIA - The death toll from a devastating earthquake that hit Indonesia's main island has risen to 252 today. The number of people killed in the earthquake may still rise further, as rescuers raced to reach survivors trapped in collapsed buildings on the island of Java. At least 30 people are still missing while 377 are injured after the shallow tremor hit West Java near the city of Cianjur, around 45 miles south of the capital Jakarta on Monday afternoon. Excavators, trucks and other heavy equipment sent overnight reached Cianjur by Tuesday morning but landslides and rough terrain are hampering rescue efforts. The country of more than 270 million people is frequently struck by earthquakes, volcanic eruptions and tsunamis because of its location on the arc of volcanoes and fault lines in the Pacific Basin known as the 'Ring of Fire.'

TURKEY - The deputy chairman of Turkish president Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s party says the US is working to prolong the Ukraine war for “its own benefit”. Despite its nominal status as an ally of the United States and European countries like Greece, which it regularly threatens, through the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO) alliance, Turkey has largely side-stepped the Western sanctions war with Russia over the invasion of Ukraine, and even taken advantage of the situation to bolster its economic relationship with Moscow.

GERMANY - The West should do its best to prevent an escalation between Russia and NATO, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz said on Saturday, while stressing his belief that it is necessary to continue providing Ukraine with arms to fight Russia. Speaking at a conference of the Social Democratic Party in the southern German city of Friedrichshafen, Scholz claimed that many people “are scared, and have reasons for it.” While pledging to continue supporting Ukraine militarily, he noted that Western countries should “be concerned that there is no escalation that could lead to a war between Russia and NATO.”

GERMANY - The president of the German Bishops’ Conference said Friday that he will continue blessing gay couples and will allow his priests to do so as well. Bishop Georg Bätzing’s public rejection of the Vatican ban on such blessings was all the more remarkable since it was issued at a press conference in Rome shortly after a meeting between Pope Francis and the German bishops.

USA - Disney ousted chief executive Bob Chapek on Sunday and announced that it had brought back former CEO Bob Iger to once again take the reins. The change, a dramatic turn of events for one of the largest media conglomerates in the world, was effective immediately, Disney said in a statement. Chapek spent two years as CEO, a period that saw Wall Street concerned about rising expenses at the company. Disney’s stock has fallen 41 percent this year. Iger, who previously served as Disney’s CEO for 15 years, increasing the company’s market capitalization five-fold during that period, has pledged to return as CEO for at least two years, the statement said.

USA - Despite what the documentaries tell you, a plant-based lifestyle isn't better for your health and it certainly won't save the planet. In recent years, we’ve been told by Netflix documentaries, vegan activists and companies selling plant-based products that going vegan is the single best thing you can do to improve your own health, the planet’s and the wellbeing of the animals we share it with.

UK - Vulnerable children fighting eating disorders and psychological problems which make them hate themselves, their bodies and their lives are being targeted by 'coaches' online who teach them how to starve themselves and 'inspire' them with mean abuse. The coaches use a technique called “meanspo” – mean inspiration - calling children disgusting and fat to get them to lose weight they don't need to lose.

VATICAN - In his 2016 letter on marriage and the family, Amoris Laetitia (“The Joy of Love”), Francis said that young people should be taught “respect and appreciation” for sexual differences, as a way of overcoming self-absorption. Especially when experiencing difficulties with gender identity, “the young need to be helped to accept their own body as it was created,” he insisted. Thinking that we enjoy “absolute power over our own bodies,” Francis warned, leads to the delusion that “we enjoy absolute power over creation.”