USA - Walmart has announced it will no longer sell chest binders and books about transgenderism that are marketed towards children in a major overhaul of its diversity policies. Walmart, which is valued at $665 billion, said in a statement it would phase out terms such as “diversity, equity and inclusion” (DEI) in company materials. The world’s biggest retailer went on to announce it will prohibit third-party sellers from offering LGBTQ-themed items on its website that were being marketed to transgender children, such as chest binders and a number of books.

ISRAEL - Israel has given the green light to a ceasefire deal with Hezbollah that would see the terror group leave southern Lebanon and Israel withdraw its forces. Benjamin Netanyahu’s government supports the proposals drawn up by the United States, sources told The Telegraph ahead of a cabinet meeting scheduled for Tuesday, when ministers will vote on the deal.

GERMANY - Continent is in crisis over growth, security and migration — Germany’s likely next chancellor will be key to its recovery. "You have to understand,” Angela Merkel said to me years ago, “that in German the word for debt, Schuld, is also the word for guilt. Debt and guilt are closely related in our minds.” Events in recent weeks have borne that out. The collapse of the three-party coalition government in Berlin was triggered by an argument over the “debt brake” in the constitution that limits government borrowing. Even though Germany’s total national debt is 63 per cent of GDP, compared with 100 per cent in Britain and 110 per cent in France, any idea of taking it higher brings trauma. Germany has been rendered weak and rudderless until elections in February. Chancellor Scholz is deeply unpopular at home and has been unimpressive abroad, placing a phone call to President Putin two weeks ago that signalled weakness at the heart of Europe.

RUSSIA - Russia's ability to wage war in Ukraine could be curtailed if Saudi Arabia tanks the oil price, researchers have said. Riyadh has hinted that it could flood the market with oil, if the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) does not commit to reducing output. Mohammad bin Salman's kingdom could push oil prices as low as £39 a barrel, a move which would inflict severe damage on the Russian economy. Writing in IPS Journal, LSE research fellow Luke Cooper wrote: "With Russia already selling its oil at discounted rates and with higher production costs, a low-price environment in oil markets may impact its ability to finance its aggression in Ukraine." According to S&P Global Ratings data, Moscow produced 122,000 barrels more than its daily quota in July. Now, Saudi Arabia may be making Russia pay the price for breaking OPEC agreements.

UK - Assisted dying advertised on Tube – while junk food ads are banned. Assisted dying has been advertised on the London Underground ahead of a vote this week on its legalisation, while junk food promotions are banned. Posters on display at Euston station include the demand “legalise assisted dying” as part of a campaign by a pressure group calling for a change in the law. Transport for London (TfL) appeared to have approved the billboards despite its rules banning “images or messages which relate to matters of public controversy or sensitivity”. Adverts for food and drink “high in fat, salt and/or sugar” have been banned by TfL since 2019. On Friday, MPs will vote on a private member’s bill that would allow terminally ill adults with less than six months to live to take their own lives with the consent of a judge and two doctors.

UK - Labour’s rift over assisted dying deepened on Monday after a cabinet minister accused a peer of mounting a “drive-by shooting” on a colleague who is opposed to the legislation. Lord Falconer of Thoroton claimed Shabana Mahmood, the justice secretary, was motivated “by her religious beliefs” in her opposition to assisted dying. He said that ministers’ religion “colours their view and is not an objective stance” and that their spiritual stance should not be “imposed on everybody else”.

USA - The rapid expansion of weapons by Moscow and Beijing in recent years means being left behind is a genuine concern for America. Within a decade, it is expected that China will have as many nuclear warheads deployed as the United States. Pentagon estimates suggest that Beijing will have 1,500 operable nuclear weapons by 2035. It will mean for the first time since the end of the Cold War, Washington will have to contend with more than just a single adversary considered a nuclear superpower.

UK - At Thursday’s session of the Commons Select Defence Committee, Deputy Chief of the Defence Staff (DCDS) Lieutenant General Sir Rob Macgowan asserted that the British army was ready to meet the threat of potential Russian aggression in Europe. Specifically, he said that “if the Russians invaded eastern Europe tonight then we would meet them in that fight”. This sort of hysterical optimism does Britain’s armed forces no favours whatsoever and is typical of the “can do” attitude that placates non-expert politicians, and to a certain extent explains why the services are in such dire straits today.

UK - Net zero targets will force Britons to change how they live their lives, the Labour chairman of Parliament’s energy committee has said. Bill Esterson, the most senior backbencher charged with scrutinising the Government’s energy policy, said ordinary people will “absolutely” have to adjust their habits to meet the UK’s ambitious emissions goals for 2030. His remarks directly contradict Sir Keir Starmer’s claim earlier in November that the Government can hit its climate targets without telling people “how to behave”.

YEMEN - While the world has been somewhat distracted by events in Lebanon and Gaza, the Houthi rebels in Yemen have been continuing their Iranian-backed attacks on world shipping in the Red Sea and the Gulf of Aden. By way of background, the Houthi movement is a Shia Islamist and military organisation that emerged in Yemen in the 1990s. They established themselves as an opposition movement to the recognised government of Yemen, which they accused of corruption and of being in the pocket of Saudi Arabia and the USA.

GERMANY - Germany's Defence Minister Boris Pistorius warned that Russia takes three months to produce the amount of weapons the EU does in a year. Germany has issued a shocking warning over the scale of Russia's weapons production, as it reportedly produces four times the amount the EU does. Boris Pistorius, the country's defence minister, said Russia only takes three months to produce the amount of weapons the EU does in a whole year.

USA - The rest of the world tends to sit out the lame-duck weeks at the end of a presidential reign, holding its breath to see what the new commander-in-chief will do once in the Oval Office. Not this time. With eight weeks to inauguration day, there's a sense of growing instability which gives the countdown to the end of Joe Biden's term in the White House an almost uniquely dangerous character. In fact, we seem closer to a World War Three-style clash between superpower rivals than at any time since the Cuban Missile Crisis of 1962.

USA - Today, the US federal debt officially eclipsed $36 trillion, according to US Debt Clock (Treasury Department data, which hasn’t been updated today, still has the figure at $35.97 trillion). This is just mere months after it famously eclipsed $35 trillion at the end of July. The Congressional Budget Office, Congress’s source for “nonpartisan analysis,” has warned about the deleterious “effects of waiting to stabilize federal debt.” A perpetually rising debt-to-GDP ratio is unsustainable over the long term because financing deficits and servicing the debt would consume an ever-growing proportion of the nation’s income.

USA - Anti-Christian hate crimes, discrimination, and restrictions on the religious freedom of Christians are increasing in many European countries, according to a new report by the Observatory on Intolerance and Discrimination against Christians in Europe (OIDAC Europe). Using government statistics, police data, and information from international and local organizations, OIDAC found 2,444 anti-Christian hate crimes documented by police and civil society in 35 European countries in 2023, including 232 personal attacks on Christians, such as harassment, threats, and physical violence.

RUSSIA - The discussions in the West about authorizing long-range missile strikes on Russia are profoundly dishonest and misleading. The political-media elites present deeply flawed arguments to support the conclusion that attacking Russia with these weapons doesn’t cross the line between proxy war and direct war. NATO may be successful in deluding itself, yet for Moscow there is no doubt that this is an act of war. The point of departure in an honest discussion should start with the right question: When is the line between proxy war and direct war crossed? These are US long-range missiles, their use is entirely dependent on American intelligence and targeting. They will be operated by US soldiers and guided by US satellites.