USA - What have we already learned on this Thanksgiving Day? That we are one vote away, just one little vote, from losing our sacred First Amendment rights, our right to assemble and to worship our God. You don’t need me to tell you — well, maybe if you attended public schools you do — that one of the primary reasons the pilgrims jumped on the Mayflower and came over to this continent was to escape the religious persecution of fascists like New York’s Democrat Governor Andrew Cuomo, who flagrantly issued an edict outlawing religious services of more than ten or 25 people, depending on the area.

GERMANY - With Divergent Opinions on Transatlantic Alliance Americans see Germany as a partner on many foreign policy issues, but Germans mostly do not. As the United States and Germany prepare to gain new leadership in 2021, their current relationship remains unbalanced in the minds of their citizenries. In surveys conducted by Pew Research Center and Körber-Stiftung before the US presidential election, an overwhelming majority of Americans continue to say that relations between the two countries are good. At the same time, almost eight-in-ten Germans say the relationship is in poor shape. Since 2017, the proportion of Germans saying that relations with the US are bad has increased 23 percentage points, while Americans’ views of the relationship have remained relatively steady. These findings are in line with previous research, which found that Germans rated the US at a 20-year low, said the US had handled the coronavirus outbreak poorly and held little confidence in President Donald Trump.

GERMANY - Social Democrats in Chancellor Angela Merkel's government have renewed calls for a law to promote democracy inside Germany. Sixty civic groups have said their projects against the far-right need stable funding. Saskia Esken, Social Democratic Party co-leader, on Monday renewed calls from her SPD that the federal parliament adopt a law promoting democracy to help foil what she said was a far-right in Germany intent on eroding society. "We are currently experiencing how right-wing extremists openly attack our democracy," said Esken, accusing Merkel's conservatives of blocking a democracy bill long sought in the Cabinet by Family Affairs Minister Franziska Giffey and Justice Minister Christine Lambrecht, both members of the SPD.

SAUDI ARABIA - Saudi Arabian lawyer and journalist Osama Yamani wrote an article in Okaz, a prominent Arabic Saudi Arabian daily newspaper, maintaining that the true location of the Al Aqsa Mosque described in Koran is in Al Ju’ranah, near Mecca in Saudi Arabia and not on the Temple Mount in Jerusalem.

VATICAN - On December 1, Simon & Schuster is releasing a new book by Pope Francis, with Austen Ivereigh. The book, titled Let Us Dream: The Path to a Better Future, is a series of interview questions given to Pope Francis by British biographer Austen Ivereigh. The interviews cover a wide range of issues, including the death of George Floyd; clerical sexual abuse; historical revisionism by toppling statues; protests against government coronavirus restrictions; persecuted minorities such as Christians, Yazidi, Rohingya, and Uighurs; migrants and refugees; and abortion, according to Crux. Many feel Pope Francis has already revealed himself to be a globalist in many ways, including with his support of the Great Reset, Black Lives Matter, socialism, same-sex civil unions, and radical environmentalism. Excerpts shared of the book show that Pope Francis continues his leftward trajectory as he gives his reflections on the change needed to build a “post-Covid world.”

USA - About six months ago, Twitter quietly hired someone to become the head of product for conversational safety on the platform. You'd think the person in charge of what might be the most difficult task at Twitter would have a predictable skillset: years of experience in and out of academia, politics and programming; an impenetrable wall of media savvy; close ties to the exec suite. You'd be wrong.

UK - Has this been a case of cause and effect? One GP in the UK, Dr David Unwin, has done a great deal of research in this area. He has managed to reverse type-2 diabetes in very nearly 50 percent of his patients by putting them on a diet which is the exact opposite of that promoted by the dietary guidelines. It is high in fat, and low on carbohydrates. Not only did he reverse diabetes, he also achieved significant and long-lasting weight loss.

IRAN - Iran's Zarif blames Israel for assassination of top nuclear scientist. Head of Iran's nuclear program Mohsen Fakhrizadeh, 59, was assassinated in Damavand, east of Tehran, local Iranian news reported on Friday. Iran later confirmed the reports. "The nuclear scientist Mohsen Fakhrizadeh was assassinated today by terrorists," the Iranian Defense Ministry wrote in a statement, while not blaming any specific entity for the incident. However, Iran's foreign minister Mohammad Javad Zarif later stated on Twitter that "serious indication" pointed to Israeli involvement and urged the international community to condemn the attack. A military adviser to Iran's supreme leader Ali Khamenei accused Israel for trying to provoke "a full-blown" war by killing Fakhrizadeh. "In the last days of the political life of their … ally (US President Donald Trump), the Zionists (Israel) seek to intensify pressure on Iran and create a full-blown war," commander Hossein Dehghan tweeted. "We will strike as thunder at the killers of this oppressed martyr and will make them regret their action," Dehghan added.

AUSTRALIA - Legislation introduced in the Victorian Government today could see Christians hit with heavy fines and lengthy jail times for attempting to convert LGBTQ people to Christianity or teaching certain portions of the Bible. The Change or Suppression (Conversion) Practices Prohibition Bill 2020 will empower the Victorian Equal Opportunity and Human Rights Commission to investigate reports of “conversion therapy” practices which may include activities as simple as prayer.

AUSTRALIA - Amnesty International has suggested Christianity must be criminalized in Australia because it is harmful to individuals who identify as LGBTQA+.

RUSSIA - The Russian Investigative Committee on Tuesday organized large scale raids against Jehovah’s Witnesses nationwide, resulting in many arrests. The raids took place across 20 regions of the country and targeted both leaders and adherents of the sect. The committee further noted the arrests were part of a mounting legal case against the group. In 2017, the Russian Supreme Court branded the Jehovah’s Witnesses as an “extremist organization,” ordering them to disband and surrender their property to the Russian state. At the time, the group claimed 175,000 members within the Russian Federation. The Investigative Committee identified several clandestine meeting locations including an apartment in Moscow from which the group worked to convert other residents.

USA - A gigantic victory for religious liberty late Wednesday night at the US Supreme Court. In a 5-4 ruling, the justices told New York Governor Andrew Cuomo he can’t discriminate against religious groups when it comes to Covid-19 restrictions. Newest justice Amy Coney Barrett gave the majority in this ruling its fifth vote. Chief Justice John Roberts joined the three liberal justices in dissent. The ruling said, “Members of this Court are not public health experts, and we should respect the judgment of those with special expertise and responsibility in this area. But even in a pandemic, the Constitution cannot be put away and forgotten. The restrictions at issue here, by effectively barring many from attending religious services, strike at the very heart of the First Amendment’s guarantee of religious liberty.”

USA - The CDC must be transparent about the side effects people may experience after getting their first shot of a coronavirus vaccine, doctors urged during a meeting Monday with CDC advisors. Dr Sandra Fryhofer said that both Pfizer’s and Moderna’s Covid-19 vaccines require two doses and she worries whether her patients will come back for a second dose because of potentially unpleasant side effects after the first shot. Both companies acknowledged that their vaccines could induce side effects that are similar to symptoms associated with mild Covid-19, such as muscle pain, chills and headache.“We really need to make patients aware that this is not going to be a walk in the park,” Fryhofer said during a virtual meeting with the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices, or ACIP, an outside group of medical experts that advise the CDC. She is also a liaison to the committee. “They are going to know they had a vaccine. They are probably not going to feel wonderful. But they’ve got to come back for that second dose.”

UK - By Malcolm Kendrick, doctor and author who works as a GP in the National Health Service in England. The type of vaccine being developed against the virus has never – outside of Ebola – been used before. The trials have been extremely rushed & involved testing only small numbers. What could possibly go wrong? Since the first positive results on vaccines have come out, a lot of people have asked me if I think everyone should take them? For some reason, a number of people out there trust my judgement on such things.

UK - The UK’s top counter-terrorism cop has suggested society stop allowing people to question the wisdom of a rapid Covid-19 vaccine rollout, regarding such skepticism to be life-threatening “misinformation.” Met Assistant Commissioner Neil Basu has pointedly questioned whether it is “the correct thing for society to allow” the sharing of “misinformation that could cost people’s lives” — demonizing all doubts about quickly developed Covid-19 vaccines whose potential long-term effects are not yet known and tying them to extremist radicalization efforts.