USA - President Donald Trump’s MAGA supporters and his Silicon Valley donors are suddenly fighting online about investors’ policy of importing a huge number of foreign graduates for career-starting professional jobs in Fortune 500 companies. On December 27, Vivek Ramaswamy super-charged the dispute by arguing that Americans must adopt a more aggressive and competitive culture: Our American culture has venerated mediocrity over excellence for way too long (at least since the 90s and likely longer). That doesn’t start in college, it starts YOUNG. This can be our Sputnik moment. We’ve awaken from slumber before & we can do it again. Trump’s election hopefully marks the beginning of a new golden era in America, but only if our culture fully wakes up. A culture that once again prioritizes achievement over normalcy; excellence over mediocrity; nerdiness over conformity; hard work over laziness.

JAPAN - The Japanese government has approved a record draft budget for the next fiscal year, including increased spending on defense. The 115.5 trillion yen ($730 billion) budget plan released by the Finance Ministry on Friday marks a 2.6% rise on the current year. Defense expenditures account for 7.5% of the total budget, or roughly $55 billion. The figure marks the 13th consecutive year of increases, according to Kyodo news agency, and a 0.5% increase from the current fiscal year. The budget includes funds for mass production of long-range missiles with standoff defense capabilities, the agency noted. In a statement on Friday, the Defense Ministry said Japan and its ally the US are facing an “increasingly challenging strategic and nuclear threat environment.”

USA - The US saw a dramatic rise in homelessness at the start of 2024, counting 18% more unhoused people during its annual tally in January than the year before, the US Department of Housing and Urban Development (Hud) reported on Friday. Cities reported counting a total of 771,480 unhoused people in January, a number that is larger than the population of Seattle. Representing 23 out of every 10,000 Americans, the number is the highest ever recorded during the tally. Still, experts consider the number an undercount, since it reflects one point in time and misses many people staying with friends or family. Hud found homelessness at record highs among nearly all demographic groups, but the largest increase was documented among families with children. Nearly 150,000 children were counted during the tally. The report comes as cities across the US have stepped up anti-encampment policies, following a June supreme court ruling that allows local authorities to prohibit camping in public even if no shelter beds are available. Since then, more than 100 cities have banned encampments.

UK - Water, or the lack of it, is likely to decide the outcome of future wars involving the UK's Armed Forces, a new report suggests. Ministry of Defence climate change and industry experts have begun to plan how to provide military personnel in dry, resource-scarce areas with enough water to ensure they achieve mission success. The latest thinking was outlined in the official journal of the MoD’s Defence, Equipment & Support (DE&S) Agency. Today, more than a quarter - 26 per cent - of the world’s population lacks access to safe drinking water, while almost half - 46 per cent - lack access to basic sanitation. "By 2050, 3.2 billion people are expected to live in areas with extreme water scarcity," says the DE&S team in the Agency's in-house magazine, Desider.

UK - Trump in. Reform rising. And humiliation for Macron, Scholz and Trudeau. Why 2025 will see the collapse of the Left... and nowhere more than Britain. There are, alas, precious few signs that 2025 will be a great year for any of us, which is a pity given 2024 was hardly one to write home about. But there are unmistakable indications it will be an especially miserable year for the Left everywhere, nowhere more so than here in dear old Blighty. Our benighted Labour government, barely half a year old, already has a well-established and well-deserved reputation for making everything it touches worse (and much of what it inherited from the Tories wasn't in great shape in the first place). Expect more of the same in 2025.

UK - The new year is almost upon us. For the Royal Navy it will be, first and foremost, the year of Carrier Strike Group deployment 2025 (CSG25). This will be the second Indo-Pacific deployment by one of our new carriers, and the first in which a combat-worthy British air group will be aboard the ship. This will offer a series of foreign policy opportunities for the new government. The first active combat theatre will be the eastern Mediterranean. Depending on the situation at the time, there may be opportunities to affect matters ashore in Syria, or to offer some useful assistance to our Israeli allies.

GERMANY - Recently deposed Chancellor Olaf Scholz, the Social Democrat (SPD) leader, still thinks he has a shot at regaining his perch, but the chances of that are as slim as they were for him surviving the no-confidence vote that cost him the job in the first place. The candidate the Christian Democrats (CDU) have up as their choice for chancellor, Friedrich Merz, is polling in a stronger position than Scholz and is already looking at who he'd form a government with. Strangely, no one wants to talk about the most popular candidate in the country, who would be Alice Weidel, head of the pesky popular and populist Alternative for Germany (AfD) party.

YEMEN - Israel's military carried out a series of devastating strikes on targets connected to the Iran-backed Houthi rebels in Yemen. Three ports along the western coast and Sanaa International Airport came under attack on Thursday. Jets bombed the Hezyaz and Ras Kanatib power stations as well as military infrastructure in the ports of Hodeidah, Salif and Ras Kanatib. A total of three people were killed and 11 others were injured during the bombardments. Israel's prime minister confirmed the attacks, vowing to carry out more until the "task is complete". Benjamin Netanyahu said: "We are determined to sever this terror arm of Iran's axis."

UK - The eco-warriors are selling merchandise to UK activists that's been made on the other side of the world. The garments are described on the website as being 100 percent cotton and customers are assured they are made with “no oil” - but with no mention of the long carbon-creating journey they have to go on to reach the UK.

CANADA - US President-elect Donald Trump’s idea of annexing Canada is a great opportunity to think about forming a true union between the neighboring countries, Canadian investor and reality TV star Kevin O’Leary has said. He went on to claim that many Canadians would back deeper ties with their southern neighbor. Closer ties between the two North American countries could have its benefits, even if “there’s obviously a lot of issues,” he added. According to O’Leary, the Canadian public wants “to understand what the proposal really is. You don’t have to sell the country, you don’t even have to merge it, but you can create a union,” O’Leary said.

ISRAEL - The Vatican’s ambassador to Israel has been summoned to the Jewish state's Foreign Ministry after Pope Francis criticized the “cruelty” of airstrikes in Gaza, several Israeli media outlets reported on Wednesday. The Pope renewed his call for a ceasefire in Gaza ahead of Christmas, highlighting the civilian death toll from Israeli airstrikes. “This is cruelty. This is not war. I wanted to say this because it touches the heart,” the pontiff said, according to Reuters. Archbishop Adolfo Tito Yllana was summoned for a conversation with Foreign Ministry Director General Eyal Bar-Tal on Tuesday. Bar-Tal condemned the remarks made by the Pope, but did not formally reprimand Yllana, the report said. West Jerusalem has dismissed accusations of genocide from states and NGOs, insisting that the Palestinian militant group Hamas has used civilians as human shields. “Cruelty is terrorists hiding behind children while trying to murder Israeli children; cruelty is holding 100 hostages for 442 days, including a baby and children, by terrorists and abusing them,” the Foreign Ministry said in a statement last month.

GERMANY - For decades, Germany was the envy of the world: a shining example of how a war-torn nation could rise from the ashes to become Europe’s economic powerhouse. This success was no accident. Germany’s prosperity rested on three key pillars: access to cheap Russian energy, unfettered free trade with the United States and other Western allies, and minimal military spending thanks to American security guarantees after the Cold War. These factors allowed Germany to build an unparalleled industrial economy, maintain a generous welfare state, and become a big player on the global markets. But Germany’s decision to sever ties with Russia following the Ukraine escalation threatens to dismantle this carefully constructed foundation. By aligning itself entirely with the US-led NATO strategy against Moscow, Germany has unwittingly sealed its economic fate. The consequences are already visible, and the worst is yet to come. Germany is doomed because of this grave mistake.

USA - Climate realist Tony Heller took to X to highlight the climate misinformation and disinformation campaigns waged by far-left corporate media on the global public. Heller referenced a 2007 BBC News article titled "Arctic summers ice-free 'by 2013'," which warned readers of the supposed threat that "latest modeling studies indicate northern polar waters could be ice-free in summers within just 5-6 years." The BBC article's baseless claim was designed to instill climate fears across the public to ram through a radical de-growth climate agenda across the Western world. Heller then cited NOAA Sea Ice Extent data of the Arctic from September 16, 2012, and September 7, 2024, and found: "This year's minimum Arctic sea ice extent was 26% larger than 2012. They keep this info out of the news because it doesn’t serve the narrative…"

USA - As 2025 approaches, America’s fiscal health is in serious trouble with a ballooning federal debt exceeding 100% of the GDP. It’s projected to get even worse. A year ago, the US national debt amounted to more than $33.8 trillion, according to Senate Republican Joint Economic Committee data. As of December 24, 2024, the debt has climbed to nearly $36.3 trillion, a $2.5 trillion increase within the past 12 months. If the average daily rate of debt growth over the past three years continues, the gross national debt will reach $37 trillion within 5 months, $39.2 trillion in 2026, and $40.95 trillion in 2027, according to the most recent Congressional Budget Office 10-year forecast. Economist Romina Boccia, director of Budget and Entitlement Policy at the Cato Institute, told The Center Square that the “excessively high, and growing unsustainably fast” national debt has “real implications” for the future of the country.

TURKEY - In the latest evidence that the Islamist regime in Turkey is on the wrong side of history, the Turkish president’s son called on Turkey to conquer Jerusalem. According to Pamela Geller, Erdogan’s son declared at an Islamist rally that “Yesterday Hagia Sophia, today the Umayyad Mosque, tomorrow Al-Aqsa.” This call to jihad is the latest in Turkey’s history of Islamist imperialism. Hagia Sophia was an eastern Orthodox Church that the Turks conquered and turned into a Mosque. The Umayyad Mosque is a Mosque in Syria recently captured by Turkish-backed Islamist forces. Al Aqsa refers to the Temple Mount in Jerusalem which apparently the Turks are threatening to conquer. As Geller points out, the irony is that the Biden regime is currently pressuring Israel to recognize the Turkish-backed ISIS gang that has taken over large portions of Syria.