USA - In the final year of World War II, the US spent about 38% of its GDP on its military. When adjusted for inflation, the military budget over those four years of war came to a staggering $4.1 trillion in 2020 dollars. Almost 80 years later, modern day military spending isn’t much of a far cry from World War II budgets. The top spenders have continued to increase their military capabilities, while war in Ukraine has caused countries in the region to re-evaluate their budgets as well. In 2022, global military budgets hit an all-time high of $2.2 trillion, according to data released by Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI), the eighth consecutive year of increase.

MIDDLE EAST - In a recent visit to al-Arish in northern Sinai, Egypt’s Prime Minister Mostafa Madbouly made a bold declaration that NO Palestinian refugees will be accepted into Egypt. Accompanied by government officials and public figures, Madbouly said, “We are prepared to sacrifice millions of lives to ensure that no one encroaches upon our territory.” Madbouly’s comments underscore Egypt’s unwavering commitment to its territorial integrity and sovereignty. “Egypt will never allow anything to be imposed on it,” he added, emphasizing that regional issues would not be solved at Egypt’s “expense.” Madbouly’s statement echoes Jordanian leader King Abdullah’s sentiment that NO Palestinian refugees will be accepted into Jordan or Egypt.

UK - Couple left 'devastated' after their new £1.2 million home was raided by children wielding chainsaws, hammers and axes who ransacked every room and destroyed wife's wedding dress. During the spree of destruction, Joanna and Matt Pittard's six bedroom house was targeted by 'mindless' youths who also damaged a wrought-iron chandelier, flipped over antique furniture and destroyed the homeowner's wedding dress. Chainsaws, axes and sledgehammers taken from the garage were used in 'every bedroom of the property' after the youngsters ran riot, leaving it looking like 'a war zone'. A relative of Mr Pittard today told MailOnline: 'They are absolutely devastated at what's happened to their beautiful home.'

COLOMBIA - Colombia has upgraded its ties with Beijing – a new sign that Latin America is tired of Washington gatekeeping its development. Colombian President Gustavo Petro made an official visit to Beijing and met with Chinese leader Xi Jinping on Wednesday. The two countries officially upgraded their relationship to a ‘strategic partnership’, elevating their economic and diplomatic cooperation.

USA - Local bank branches are closing across San Francisco, as the city’s economic decline continues amid crime, homelessness, and a drug epidemic. The San Francisco Chronicle reported Tuesday: Bank branches are vanishing across the country, and San Francisco is having a record-testing year. Twenty branches shuttered across the city through October 28, according to data from the US Office of the Comptroller of the Currency. The closures — from the central Richmond District in the west to Mission Bay in the east, from Fort Mason in the north to Bayview in the south — add up to more than the previous two years combined and represent the most in a single year since at least 2000. All over California, 277 bank branches have closed so far this year, second only this century to 2020, when 325 branches closed. Branch openings are a much rarer occurrence: Only eight have occurred statewide this year.

UNITED NATIONS - The United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC) still plans on allowing the Iranian regime to lead its human rights forum later this week despite its abysmal record on women’s rights where they beat and jail women for not covering their hair. The forum also comes just weeks after Hamas, an Iranian-funded terrorist group slaughtered 1,400 Jews in southern Israel and took another 220 Jews hostage. The death count continues to climb as more hostages are confirmed dead by Israeli authorities. Hamas barbarians slaughtered 1,400 Jews on October 7, 2023, in the most horrific ways imaginable. Now Iran, the Hamas funders, will be lecturing the world on human rights. It really is time for the US to exit this sham organization.

USA - A truck driver in a viral video explained that poor infrastructure and inefficient, heavy electric batteries make it nearly impossible to switch semi-trucks and other large vehicles to fully electric. "This truck," Barber said. "A logging truck uses about two and a half megawatts of power per day. With extra capacity in the battery means you need a three-megawatt battery pack. The biggest one is like a Tesla semi, which is like a one-megawatt. So you need three megawatts to run an electric truck,” he went on.

YEMEN - In the morning of Tuesday, October 31, there were reports of a rocket attack on Israel from Yemen. Now there has been an official statement indicating that the country is officially entering into combat. The official spokesperson for the Yemeni Armed Forces, Brigadier General Yahya Saree Anu, declared that his country officially declares war on Israel. The statement refers to the "third operation in support of the oppressed brethren in Palestine." The Yemeni spokesperson acknowledged that rockets were launched towards Israel, including a "significant number of ballistic and winged missiles." Additionally, drones were launched. The attacks targeted "enemy installations in occupied territories." Saree also noted that the strikes will continue until the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) cease operations in the Gaza sector.

USA - The 360-kiloton bomb will “credibly deter” potential threats, a top defense official has claimed. The US Defense Department has announced that it will develop a new version of the B61 nuclear bomb with 24 times the destructive power of the one dropped on Hiroshima at the end of World War II. According to a fact sheet accompanying the announcement, the bomb, dubbed the B61-13, will have a similar yield to the B61-7, which it is intended to replace. The B61-7 has a maximum yield of 360 kilotons, making it 24 times more powerful than ‘Little Boy’, the 15-kiloton bomb that leveled Hiroshima. The B61-7 is not the most powerful nuclear weapon in the US arsenal. That title goes to the B83, a thermonuclear gravity bomb with a yield of 1.2 megatons of TNT. The B83 replaced the even more powerful B53, which packed a 9-megaton punch and was retired in 2011.

USA - Pro-Hamas Demonstrations Prove We Need to Change Our Immigration Strategy. If the jihadist butchery of October 7 was monstrous, the spectacle of huge crowds applauding it was appalling. It shocked many people. It shouldn’t have. Many of us have spent years writing endlessly about the ugliness of Islamic ideology — notably the murderous hatred of Jews that is enshrined in the Koran, taught in the madrassas, and preached in the mosques — only to feel that our words were falling on deaf ears. Radical proposal: America not only needs to stop accepting sharia-following immigrants, but needs to identify and deport every immigrant in the country who has been observed celebrating Hamas terrorism. This is a proposal that, before October 7, would have sounded offensive to many American ears. Perhaps after October 7 it doesn’t sound quite so harsh. But if the truth offends, so be it. Germany considers backing Israel part of its atonement for the Holocaust perpetrated by Adolf Hitler's Nazi regime in 1933-45. An estimated 120,000 Jews lived in the country as of 2021.

GERMANY - Berlin has a “historical responsibility” to protect Jews from hate crime, Robert Habeck has said. Too many people in Germany are anti-Semitic and this must change, Vice Chancellor Robert Habeck has told Bild in response to the tabloid’s manifesto on what Berlin needs to do about millions of Muslim immigrants. “The extent of anti-Semitism is frightening,” said the head of the Greens and federal minister for the economy. “We have a historical responsibility and anti-Semitism, no matter what form it takes, must have no place in Germany.”

USA - Terrorist threats against the US reached “a whole other level” after the Hamas attack on Israel, FBI Director Christopher A Wray told Congress on Tuesday, saying the big players in terrorism have all renewed calls to attack America and its interests. He said the level of threats has heightened since President Biden took office, though US law enforcement is “better prepared to deal with them.” “The reality is that the terrorism threat has been elevated throughout 2023, but the ongoing war in the Middle East has raised the threat of attack on Americans to a whole other level,” Mr Wray said. He said al Qaeda has issued its most specific call for attacks on the US in years, Islamic State leaders have ordered followers to attack Jewish communities, and Hezbollah is eyeing US targets in the Middle East. Iran, meanwhile, has pushed proxy attacks on US military bases.

MIDDLE EAST - "Israel is a country that has no place on our land," Hamas official Ghazi Hamad told Lebanese news outlet LBCI news this week, according to a report and translation from the Middle East Media Research Institute (MEMRI) released on Wednesday. "We must remove that country," he continued. Hamas Official Ghazi Hamad: We Will Repeat the October 7 Attack Time and Again Until Israel Is Annihilated; We Are Victims - Everything We Do Is Justified - "We must teach Israel a lesson, and we will do this again and again. The Al-Aqsa Flood is just the first time, and there will be a second, a third, a fourth. Because we have the determination... to fight."

GERMANY - Boris Pistorius cited the Russia-Ukraine conflict as well as the Middle East escalation as among the threats to the continent. A new war in Europe is no longer unthinkable and German society must adapt to this reality, Defense Minister Boris Pistorius has claimed as he called for increased military spending. In an interview with Germany’s ZDF broadcaster on Sunday, Pistorius insisted that Germans “must again get used to the thought that the danger of a war in Europe could pose a threat.” Discussing Berlin’s defense capabilities, the minister called on his compatriots to “become war-capable.”

TURKEY - "Türkiye attaches great importance to its longstanding relations with friendly and allied Germany, which encompass political, economic, military, cultural, and humanitarian dimensions," Recep Tayyip Erdogan said in his message on the 10th anniversary of the Turkish-German University in Istanbul. Türkiye considers the more than 3 million of its people living in Germany as a "human bridge" between the two countries, he said. "The German citizens living in Türkiye and our growing commercial relations are the clearest indicators of our friendship," the Turkish president added. Stressing that Ankara and Berlin have always been in communication, cooperation, and solidarity throughout history, Erdogan said: "I sincerely believe that the friendly relations between Türkiye and Germany will become even stronger from now on.”