USA - The US is so bitterly divided between red & blue factions that some want it to split into two nations. While my country’s currently the Dis-United States of America, calls for it to be broken up into a Republican-dominated state and a Democrat-dominated one are so radical that it’s difficult to see how it could be implemented. The US is so bitterly divided that some wonks are calling for a formal split – either into an arrangement giving states more autonomy to govern themselves, or a two-nation solution. Neither will prevail because the pain of remaining ‘together’ is still insufficient. At this point, so the argument goes, the two tribes have little in common and nothing but contempt for each other. The acrimony between blue and red is so intense and thoroughgoing that something must be done – or so argue two of the Claremont Institute’s contributors.

USA - Attorney Sidney Powell says there’s plenty of time for President Donald Trump’s legal team to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election. ''With the fraud case, the December 8 deadline doesn’t apply,'' Powell said Friday during an appearance on Newsmax TV’s ''Stinchfield'' in reference to the ''safe harbor'' deadline that frees a state from further challenge if it resolves all disputes and certifies its voting results. ''We have at least until December 14,'' she said. ''We might file more suits. The court in Michigan or Wisconsin today just gave us a great order recognizing that. These are not pure election contests we are filing. These are massive fraud suits that can set aside the results of the election due to this fraud at any time. The states should not be certifying election results in the face of it.''

UK - Boris Johnson will make 'one last throw of the dice' in trade talks with the EU on Monday to avert a No Deal Brexit at the end of the month as negotiations remained deadlocked this weekend. An hour-long phone call between the Prime Minister and European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen failed to resolve the 'significant differences' between London and Brussels over French demands for Britain to remain tied to EU rules. Talks will resume in Brussels today.

USA - The US sold $175 billion in weapons to foreign partners and allies in fiscal 2020, a 2.8 percent rise from the previous year’s total, according to a Friday announcement from the Defense and State departments. The total comes at the end of the Trump administration, which made increasing arms exports a key part of its economic growth platform. Export licenses via the Direct Commercial Sales program totaled $124.3 billion in FY20, up from $114.7 billion the previous year. A series of reforms, started under the Obama administration and continued under the Trump team, has pushed more defense articles into the commercial sales realm.

USA - US arms official says it is 'possible' F-35 deal could happen before Biden inauguration, Senate voting on bills to block sales next week. With the Senate preparing to vote on a series of resolutions that seek to block a massive $23 billion weapons sale to the UAE, Abu Dhabi’s ambassador to the US said the UAE would seek weapons elsewhere if need be. “We would rather have the best US-equipment or we will reluctantly find it from other sources, even if less capable,” UAE envoy Yousef al-Otaiba said on Thursday. Al-Otaiba made an argument President Trump frequently makes about arms sales to Gulf states. The envoy said the sale would “support tens of thousands of US jobs.” The $23 billion sale includes F-35 fighter jets, Reaper drones, missiles and munitions and is seen as a reward for the UAE’s normalization agreement with Israel.

USA - There are approximately 74 million children in the United States, and right now millions upon millions of them do not have enough to eat. The economic collapse that has started in 2020 has been brutal for most of the nation, but it has hit children particularly hard. If their parents lose their jobs, there is nothing that they can do except hope that government handouts and the kindness of others will be enough.

AUSTRALIA - The escalating tensions with China has exposed just how tight the Asian superpower's grip is on the Australian economy, both in terms of trade and its ownership of important local assets. As Beijing becomes increasingly belligerent toward Australia, the latter's heavy reliance upon Chinese money has been exposed as vulnerability instead of a strength. China now owns key ports, mines, agricultural land, dairy processors, valuable real estate, state-sponsored schools, plus water and energy companies. The rosy days of 2015 - when the Northern Territory government decided to lease the Port of Darwin to Chinese-owned company Landbridge for 99 years - now seem long gone, but such deals cannot be undone. The global development plan is a key policy of President Xi Jinping and China aims to build and own infrastructure in as many countries throughout the world as possible to increase those nations' dependence on China. Smaller countries are often tempted to sell their land, and their sovereignty, in return for big money deals offered by Beijing.

USA - It was the judgment of the framers that this freedom is as essential to human fulfillment as are any other free choices that free people make. When teaching law students about the Bill of Rights, professors often ask on the first day of class which is the first freedom protected by the First Amendment. The students invariably answer, “freedom of speech.” It is not. If the framers were trying to tell us which freedom is the first among equals, they did so by listing the religion clauses ahead of the freedom of speech.

USA - The Amistad Project of the non-partisan Thomas More Society released a white paper on Friday making the case that current Electoral College deadlines are arbitrary and not set in stone, contrary to what most news outlets have reported. The white paper says that these deadlines — December 8 for disputes to be resolved and Electors to be determined, and December 14 for the Electoral College to meet in person and vote in their respective states — are a "direct impediment to states' obligations to investigate disputed elections." According to the Amistad Project press release, the paper examines the history of Electoral College deadlines, which "are not only elements of a 72-year old federal statute with zero Constitutional basis, but are also actively preventing the states from fulfilling their constitutional — and ethical — obligation to hold free and fair elections. According to the white paper, the only date in the election process set by the Constitution is "the assumption of office by the President on January 20."

NIGERIA - A Nigerian state governor warned on Wednesday that Nigeria’s military is struggling to defend the country from the Islamic terror group Boko Haram, which has recently ramped up the intensity and frequency of its attacks in northeastern Borno State. “The reality we can all say, and I personally as security scholar, the reality I can see is that our military is overwhelmed. Our military is no longer in a position to single-handedly tackle this menace effectively,” the governor of Nigeria’s Ekiti State, Kayode Fayemi, said Wednesday, according to Nigeria’s Punch newspaper.

UK - Harsh Covid-19 restrictions will have to stay in place longer if Britons refuse to be vaccinated, the Deputy Chief Medical Officer has warned. Jonathan Van-Tam said the entire country was “fed up” with social distancing – but said “the dream” of ending it lay in the hands of ordinary people, weighing up whether to have a jab. “If you want that dream to come true as quickly as it can come true, then you have to take the vaccine when it’s offered to you,” he told a press conference. “Low uptake will almost certainly make restrictions last longer.” The comments came as the first survey since the dramatic go-ahead for the Pfizer vaccine found that one in five Britons lacks confidence in it. The jab has to be stored at such low temperatures that it can only be moved a few times, while the packs of doses – with 975 doses per pack – cannot yet be split up.

NICARAGUA - An uptick in activity has been observed at the Nicaraguan Telica volcano on Monday, November 30, 2020, with low-level ash emission and dozens of explosions at regular rates. Ashfall was reported in nearby communities, including El Panal, Cristo Rey, Los Cocos, and Los Ángeles​. At least 50 explosions were recorded within 9 hours on November 30, with a maximum height of ash between 100 and 400 m (330-1,300 feet) above the crater. This is about 1.5 km (5,000 feet) above sea level.

UK - The UK government has granted pharmaceutical giant Pfizer a legal indemnity protecting it from being sued, enabling its coronavirus vaccine to be rolled out across the country as early as next week. The Department of Health and Social Care has confirmed the company has been given an indemnity protecting it from legal action as a result of any problems with the vaccine. Ministers have also changed the law in recent weeks to give new protections to companies such as Pfizer, giving them immunity from being sued by patients in the event of any complications. NHS staff providing the vaccine, as well as manufacturers of the drug, are also protected. The Department of Health and Social Care confirmed an indemnity was in place for Pfizer and added that the government would be adding the coronavirus vaccine to the list of vaccinations covered by the Vaccine Damages Payments Act. This pays out a one-off £120,000 payment to people who are permanently disabled or harmed as a result of a listed vaccination.

UK - The United Kingdom government has today announced its approval of the first Covid19 vaccine for general use. 800,000 doses are slated to be released for general use by the end of the week, and has already signed a contract for 40 million more doses (to go along with over 300 million doses of as-yet-unreleased vaccines from other companies). With the newest phase in the Covid19 roll-out set to begin, it’s time we addressed the five biggest questions about this vaccine, its effectiveness, its safety and whether or not we’ll be forced to use it.

USA - A Democratic group dedicated to representing secular values unveiled a slate of recommendations for President-elect Joe Biden’s incoming administration on Monday (November 30), outlining a sweeping agenda designed to roll back many of President Trump’s actions involving religion and to “restore a vision of constitutional secularism.”