AUSTRALIA - Australia is facing a massive bill from unprecedented, deadly fires that have burned an area bigger than Belgium. Insurers have received claims worth A$240m (£126m; $165m) since October, and they expect the number will grow significantly. Medical bills from the fires and smoke haze could also run into the hundreds of millions. And one analysis suggests disruptions caused by the fire and smoke haze could cost Sydney as much as A$50m a day. The bush fires have killed eight people. There appears to be no reprieve in sight, as temperatures are expected to hit 40C on the weekend, stoking fears of more fires. 700 houses have been destroyed by the fires. 2,306 insurance claims have been made up to mid-December. A$240m is the value of those claims.

USA - The Democrats got what they wanted, but in the process they have created deep political fissures that will never heal. Now that President Trump has been impeached by the House, he will eventually be acquitted by the Senate, and so his political career will survive. But far more importantly, it has gotten to the point where nobody can no longer deny that America is at war with itself.

USA - I knew that Americans were dumb, but I didn’t think it was this bad. In the hours after President Trump was impeached by the House of Representatives, thousands of people immediately began wildly celebrating on social media because “Trump is not the president anymore”. But of course that is not true at all. Two-thirds of the Senate will have to vote to convict Trump in order to remove him from office, and at this point that seems exceedingly unlikely. Anyone that has received even the most basic education about the US Constitution should know this, so how is it possible that there are vast hordes of people out there that actually believe that Donald Trump is no longer the president of the United States? This is yet another example that demonstrates how spectacularly our system of public education has failed. This generation has made a mockery of everything that previous generations of Americans worked so hard to build, and our society is literally coming apart at the seams right in front of our eyes.

VATICAN - The pope could resign in 2020, in what would be the final piece of a 900-year-old prophecy marking the end of the world, according to a source close to the Vatican leader. He said in 2013: “I don’t think there’s ever been any doubt that he will resign in 2020. He made clear from the beginning that he regarded Pope Benedict’s (XVI) act as a prophetic act of great modesty and he would have absolutely no problem in doing the same.”

USA - The founding fathers knew that having a [CB] control the currency in the US was not a benefit to the people. The [CB] is a burden on the economy, it does not allow people to thrive, it allows a small portion of the population to reach the top, the majority of the people struggle every single day. The value of currency declines every single day which makes it harder on the people.

VATICAN - Pope Francis presided over the installation of a migrant crucifix in the Vatican Thursday, on which he had a migrant life vest placed on the cross in place of the body of Jesus. The ceremony of the hanging of the new cross took place at the end of a meeting between the pope and a group of 33 migrants that the pontiff had flown over from the Greek island of Lesbos. The life jacket on the cross was recovered adrift in the middle of the Mediterranean Sea last July and is believed to have belonged to a migrant who died at sea. “We are facing another death caused by injustice,” Francis said in his address to the migrants. “Yes, because it is injustice that forces many migrants to leave their lands. It is injustice that forces them to cross deserts and suffer abuse and torture in detention camps. It is injustice that rejects them and makes them die at sea.”

USA - In an attempt to decrease the population of rats in New York City, pest control have managed to create a new generation of “super rats.” According to Jonathan Richardson, from the University of Richmond, although pest control removes most of the rats in a population, the rats that survive the lethal control are genetically more “fit.” Jonathan, who studies urban rats in New York City, has found that the survivors are more likely to have traits that make them able to avoid the onslaught of exposure to rodenticides and traps. These survivors then produce baby rats, which inherit the same helpful traits. Scientists have since identified specific genes in the “super rats” that render common rodenticides ineffective.

USA - Teen Vogue is ringing in the Christmas season with gift recommendations for transgender loved ones that encourage surgery and other forms of body mutilation to treat the psychological condition of gender dysphoria. The online magazine, whose past primary mission was to provide teen girls with makeup tricks and fashion notes, now fancies itself totally “woke” as it blames the Trump administration for whatever misfortune happens to individuals who claim to be uncomfortable with their biological sex.

UK - Six psychologists who resigned from England’s flagship National Health Service (NHS) child transgender clinic have raised concerns over its treatment of children with the mental disorder gender dysphoria, saying that they felt pressured to ignore psychological treatment and begin hormone treatment for minors.

AUSTRALIA - Australia has set a record for its hottest ever day for a second day running after Tuesday's 105.5F (41C) was followed by a searing 107.4F (42C) on Wednesday. The heatwave has added to dangerous fire conditions with warnings in place for most of the country and more than 170 fires burning in New South Wales and Queensland. The Bureau of Meteorology said on Wednesday the new nationally averaged maximum had been reached again, with the two recent records beating the previous of 104.5F (40C) set in January 2013. Australia's most populous state of New South Wales declared a seven-day state of emergency on Thursday as oppressive conditions fanned around 100 wildfires. Around 2,000 firefighters were battling the blazes, half of which remain uncontrolled, with the support of US and Canadian backup teams and personnel from the Australian Defence Force.

USA - The White House on Tuesday denied reports from a Lebanese television channel that its supposed peace plan will include a three-way deal between Israel, the Palestinian Authority and Hamas, the Islamist terror group that rules the Gaza Strip. “Rumors about the content of the Trump Administration peace plan are false,” a senior administration official told The Times of Israel. “We are confident that the so-called source has not seen the plan.” The report — by the pro-Hezbollah Al-Mayadeen — features details that starkly contradict the limited information that Washington has released about the proposal, and that stand at sharp odds with known US and Israeli positions.

UK - Thursday: The state opening of Parliament. The Queen's Speech is the centrepiece of this, when she will read a speech written by ministers setting out the government's programme of legislation for the parliamentary session. A couple of hours after the speech is delivered, MPs will begin debating its contents - a process which usually takes days.

Friday: Depending on how rapidly Boris Johnson wants to move, the debate on the Queen's Speech could continue into Friday. The government will introduce the Withdrawal Agreement Bill to Parliament. MPs in the previous Parliament backed Mr Johnson's bill at its first stage but rejected his plan to fast-track the legislation through Parliament in three days in order to leave the EU by the then Brexit deadline of 31 October. After the debate on the Queen's Speech is concluded, MPs will vote on whether to approve it. Not since 1924 has a government's Queen Speech been defeated.

UK - Prime Minister Boris Johnson will make it illegal for parliament to force the British government to extend the transition period beyond December 31st, 2020. The move pre-empts efforts by Remainer activists and parliamentarians — the latter however now in the minority — from forcing the Conservative government to accept another Brexit delay if negotiators do not agree on a deal on the future relationship with the EU by the end of the 11-month transition period. A Downing Street source told The Times: “Last week the public voted for a government that would get Brexit done and move this country forward — and that’s exactly what we intend to do, starting this week. Our manifesto made clear that we will not extend the implementation period and the new withdrawal agreement bill will legally prohibit government from agreeing to any extension.”

UK - Prince Charles is planning to visit Israel and the Palestinian territories next month, the future British king’s office announced on Wednesday. The trip, which comes amid the UK’s efforts to leave the European Union and sign bilateral trade agreements with other countries as well as an ongoing controversy over anti-Semitism in the UK Labour party, will be only the second official visit to Israel by a member of the royal family since the State of Israel was founded in 1948. Charles, known formally as His Royal Highness The Prince of Wales, is scheduled to attend the World Holocaust Forum in Jerusalem (to commemorate the 75th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz-Birkenau death camp) on January 23, 2020.

CHINA - If you are not familiar with the bank, it’s one of the largest banks in China, a “big 4” State Owned Enterprise (SOE) bank and the bank has a market cap similar in size to Wells Fargo around $200 billion dollars. However, many of the people, thousands of people according to the Asian source who follows the Chinese economy closely and sent me the 15 second video, were arrested by police for trying to take out too much Chinese Yuan out of their accounts. So far news of this bank run was kept quiet by the Chinese government controlled state run media in mainland China. There seem to be very large and growing problems in the last 12 months with Japanese, Chinese, European and now American banks with Repo Madness.