USA - The ascension of Mike Johnson to the post of speaker of the House marks the latest and perhaps the most consequential event to date in the alliance of white evangelical Christians with the Republican Party. It also adds a chapter to the alliance of evangelicals and former President Donald Trump. If there were many in the Capitol and in the country surprised to see the little-known Johnson as speaker, they share that amazement with those who could not imagine Trump in the White House. Beyond that, there is the eye-opening fact that these utterly different personalities — and the conservative Christian movement itself — all owe their current status and power to their cooperation with each other.

USA – A Survivor of Mao’s China Warns America is on the Verge of Becoming a Communist State. Xi Van Fleet is a Chinese-American who lives in Virginia. As a survivor of Mao’s China, she has a fascinating life story. She also knows Communism when she sees it and according to Fleet, the United States is on the verge of bcoming a Communist state like China. We would be wise to heed the warnings of people who escaped Communist regimes. While we were sleeping, in 2020, America went through a cultural revolution that was instantly recognizable to escapees from totalitarianism like Xi Van Fleet, who had lived through the terrors of Mao’s China as a schoolgirl. Her book, “Mao’s America,” is a five-alarm warning of the menace in our midst. She is alarmed that most Americans do not see clearly what she does, that “the root of today’s ‘woke revolution,’ not to mention its ultimate goal, is Marxism followed by Communism.”

IRAN - Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said during an address to his country this week that “death to America” is not just a slogan or a chant, it’s the country’s official policy toward the US. The remarks come as the Islamic Republic, which is the world’s leading state sponsor of terrorism, has fueled attacks against Israel over the last month through several terrorist proxy groups, including Hamas, which murdered 1,400 Israelis. Terrorist leaders with Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad have repeatedly stated that Iran was the main backer behind their activities, providing them with money, weapons, and training. Khamenei made the remarks Wednesday on Iran’s Channel 1, according to a video clip translated by the Middle East Media Research Institute.

LEBANON - Leader of the Shia party Hezbollah, Sheikh Hassan Nasrallah has through mediators given an ultimatum to the US, demanding an end to Israel’s military operation in Gaza by November 3, Kuwait’s Al-Jarida newspaper reports, citing Iranian diplomatic sources. According to the sources, if the US fails to meet this demand, in his Friday televised address, Sheikh Nasrullah will announce "a general mobilization of Shia units for war with Israel and will launch military operations against Israel from all directions." Al-Jarida notes that the Hezbollah leader agreed the ultimatum with Brigadier General Esmail Qaani, head of the Iranian Revolutionary Guards' Quds Force, who arrived in the Lebanese capital of Beirut on Tuesday.

UK - London 'less safe for Jews than Israel' as 'tense' capital braces for 'million strong' pro-Palestine protest to clash with Armistice Day next weekend, with thousands more to march across the country TOMORROW - as Tories demand Sadiq gets grip on the chaos. The Metropolitan Police today vowed to use 'all its powers' to stop pro-Palestine protesters disrupting Armistice Day commemorations - as senior Tories called on Sadiq Khan to get a grip on the 'tense' situation.

ISRAEL - Israel’s Foreign Minister Eli Cohen has criticized what he called the “unbalanced focus” of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), amid the IDF’s offensive in Gaza. He also blasted the Geneva-based aid group for failing to rescue Israeli hostages being held by Hamas. “The Red Cross has no right to exist if it does not succeed in visiting the hostages being held captive by the Hamas,” Cohen said in a telephone conversation on Wednesday with ICRC director Miriana Spolijaric, according to a summary released by Israel’s Foreign Ministry.

LEBANON - Hassan Nasrallah, the leader of Hezbollah in Lebonon, an Iranian proxy army, spoke today to supporters in Beirut, Lebanon. Nasrallah warned of strikes against US bases in the region saying, “We will attack US bases. They must pay the price.” There have been at least 24 attacks on US bases in the Middle East since Hamas stormed Israel and massacred 1,400 civilians. Hassan Nasrallah warned Israel, “There will be more actions against Israel on many different fronts and this will become clear in the next few days.”

GERMANY - Hamas' terror and Israel's counterattacks have unleashed levels of anti-Semitism not seen in years in Germany. Jews are living in fear and now wonder if they should leave the country. The political response so far appears to be doing little to change the situation. Something has indeed shifted in Germany, the country that perpetrated the Holocaust. Solidarity with Israel and the Jews appears to have become threadbare. Not among the country's leaders, but clearly with many people. Hostility toward Jews has gripped broad strata of society. A new variant of anti-Semitism is rearing its head on the left, cloaked in the guise of solidarity with the Palestinians. It has a new quality and goes beyond the hostility to Israel that anti-imperialists on the left have harbored for decades. Meron Mendel has coined the term “woke anti-Semitism” to describe it.

GERMANY - MBDA Deutschland provided new details on the Laser Weapon Demonstrator [LWD] developed in cooperation with Rheinmetall and recently tested by the German Navy. “This has been an important step towards an operational high-energy laser system,” said Doris Laarmann, Head of Laser Activities at MBDA Germany, speaking at national and international media during on a visit to MBDA Deutschland’s in Schrobenhausen, the company’s main site in Germany. The LWD has proved to be capable of successfully engaging targets in a maritime environment, having performed more than one hundred firing tests aboard the Sachsen platform. “The conclusion drawn by the Bundeswehr are that the technologies are ready and proven,” and therefore the next step is expected to be the development contract but, “the customer is looking to reduce dimensions and weight, and to get higher performances to cope with a wider range of targets.”

GERMANY - The German government is using Israel’s genocidal war against Gaza and the NATO war offensive against Russia to aggressively push the militarisation of domestic and foreign policy. This is underlined by statements made by Defence Minister Boris Pistorius (Social Democrat, SPD) in the latest edition of the ZDF programme “Berlin Direkt.”

USA - In Los Angeles, a man screaming "kill Jews" attempts to break into a family's home. In London, girls in a playground are told they are "stinking Jews" and should stay off the slide. In China, posts likening Jews to parasites, vampires or snakes proliferate on social media, attracting thousands of "likes". These are examples of incidents of antisemitism, which have surged globally since the attack by Hamas gunmen on southern Israel on October 7 and subsequent war on the Islamist group launched by Israel in the Gaza Strip.

VATICAN - Pope Francis has called for a “paradigm shift” in Catholic theology that takes widespread engagement with contemporary science, culture, and people’s lived experience as an essential starting point. Citing the need to deal with “profound cultural transformations,” the pope presented his dramatic vision for the future of Catholic theology in a new motu proprio issued earlier today. Titled Ad Theologiam Promovendam, or “to promote theology,” the document revises the statutes of the Pontifical Academy of Theology (PATH) “to make them more suitable for the mission that our time imposes on theology.”

VATICAN - There are no winners in war, Pope Francis said on Wednesday in an interview with the Italian broadcaster RAI, urging Israelis and Palestinians to live together in peace as neighbors. “In war, one slap provokes another. One strong and the other even stronger, and so it goes on,” the Pope said, addressing the October 7 Hamas attack and Israel’s retaliation against Gaza in a lengthy feature that aired right after the evening news. The solution to the cycle of violence, the 86-year-old Jesuit argued, is to recognize an independent Palestinian state. “Two peoples who must live together. With that wise solution: two peoples, two states. The Oslo Accords: two clearly delineated states, and Jerusalem with a special status,” the Pope told RAI.

VATICAN - Pope Francis is scheduled to attend the upcoming COP28 climate summit in Dubai from December 1–3, while the US bishops' conference continues to echo his call for climate activism. In a recent interview with Gian Marco Chiocci, the director of Italy's TG1 television channel, Pope Francis offered his views on the significance of this summit. He noted that the upcoming summit serves as a critical juncture between the 2016 Paris Agreement and the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. In fact, this year's United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP28) marks the midway point between the legally binding Paris Agreement, which entered into force in 2016, and the culmination of Agenda 2030 and its globalist, socialist ideals seven years from now.

ITALY - Diners at restaurants around this tiny port streamed outside while moored boats and an eight-storey crane began to sway. Some cats milled about, unfazed by the umpteenth tremor to hit this picturesque seaside town. “You feel that? It’s nonstop earthquakes here,” said Luca Averna, a part-time fisherman, as he paused from working on his small boat during the 3.6-magnitude tremor. “We’re used to it, but that doesn’t mean we aren’t afraid.”