UK - The number of British citizens neither working nor looking for a job has grown dramatically since the beginning of the pandemic. Much of this can be attributed to mental health issues, which could impede the UK’s economic growth, economists warn. According to research carried out by a UK media outlet, the number of economically inactive people in Britain rose by 537,500 between June 2019 and June 2022. About 450,000 of these cases were connected to mental health issues. The number of economically inactive people in the UK has skyrocketed to almost nine million. Britons are plagued by depression and anxiety disorders, the research shows.

TAIWAN - Taiwanese President Tsai Ing-wen told The Atlantic on Monday that there “is a genuine threat” of a Chinese invasion. China has insisted that it will strive to reintegrate Taiwan by peaceful means, but should conflict break out, Tsai will be looking to the West for help.

AUSTRALIA - Washington insists that Australia will ruin its “deterrence relationship” with the US if it signs a landmark treaty. The US has urged Australia not to sign a treaty seeking to ban all nuclear weapons, claiming the agreement will reinforce “divisions” between world powers, while failing to address “prevailing security threats” around the globe.

USA - If it is not Covid, it’s the flu… The US has “crossed the epidemic threshold” when it comes to flu, federal health officials said Friday, as they outlined plans to deploy troops and FEMA personnel, and supplies like ventilators, if needed, in response to a nationwide surge of respiratory illnesses that also includes RSV and COVID.

BELGIUM - The Flemish government legitimizes and subsidizes a worldwide lobby organization openly pursuing globalism, states MEP Sam van Rooy. The Flemish conservative party, Vlaams Belang, is demanding that the government cancel its World Economic Forum (WEF) membership. This year, the Flemish government will pay almost EUR 200,000 in membership fees to the WEF and approximately EUR 27,000 as a participation fee in their annual meeting in Davos.

UK - Prime Minister Rishi Sunak’s government has signalled it is open to discussing climate “reparations” for the likes of Pakistan, as he prepares tax hikes and public service cuts at home in the name of fiscal responsibility. The Islamic Republic of Pakistan is leading a bloc of countries demanding climate change “reparations” from the West, despite their own less than environmentally friendly behaviour, and British business secretary Grant Shapps MP said the Sunak administration was “accepting the principle there’s a discussion to be had about this” at the COP27 United Nations Climate Change Conference in Egypt, according to The Times.

USA - The White House has authorized employing strategic assets in South Korea more frequently. The announcement comes as Pyongyang, Seoul and Washington conduct unprecedented aerial war games. At a news conference with Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin and South Korean Defense Minister Lee Jong-sup, Lee stated Austin pledged to set up deployments of nuclear-capable weapons. He said the US promised, "to effectively respond to any DPRK provocation by employing US strategic assets to the level equivalent to constant deployment through increasing the frequency and intensity of strategic asset deployment in and around the Korean Peninsula."

USA - Both the Pentagon’s recently released Nuclear Posture Review and National Defense Strategy say Tehran has no nuclear weapons. Washington believes Tehran "is not pursuing one." If Washington does not secure a new nuclear deal or take military action itself, incoming Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu will attack Iran, according to Tzachi Hanegbi, a longtime member of Israel’s Likud party. The former settlement minister issued the warning while speaking with Channel 12 news on Friday.

QATAR - A Qatar World Cup ambassador has told German television broadcaster ZDF that homosexuality is 'damage in the mind', as the Gulf state prepares to host the global tournament in less than two weeks. In an interview filmed in Doha and to be screened later on Tuesday, former Qatari international Khalid Salman addressed the issue of homosexuality, which is illegal in the conservative Muslim country.

GERMANY - While Germany’s new China strategy is being drafted, the dispute between the German foreign ministry and the chancellery is escalating over the intensity of the confrontation policy toward Beijing. Chancellor Olaf Scholz is pushing for maintaining a certain degree of economic cooperation despite the growing rivalry with the People’s Republic – in the interests of important branches of the German industry, which depend on China as a sales market and a research and development site. Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock is pushing for aggressive political attacks against Beijing – under the pretext of fighting for human rights.

GERMANY - Half of Germans asked in a survey have said they’re afraid they might not have enough money to financially survive the coming winter, a poll commissioned by the tabloid Bild revealed on Sunday. Most people also believe the government’s relief measures to alleviate the fallout of the ongoing energy crunch are not enough. Only 36% of respondents believe that government measures will help them get by, according to the survey carried out by the INSA polling agency. In late October, another INSA poll also showed that more than half of Germans believed that Chancellor Olaf Scholz was not up to the challenges the nation was facing.

UNITED NATIONS - The world must choose whether to cut emissions or condemn future generations to a climate catastrophe, United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres warned while speaking at the COP27 summit in Egypt on Monday. “Humanity has a choice: cooperate or perish,” Guterres told delegates gathered to discuss how to combat change amid an ongoing military conflict between Russia and Ukraine and rising global inflation and energy shortages.

USA - Today, if you use Big Tech’s products, as almost everyone in the US does, your actions and speech are being monitored. If you use a mobile device such as a cell phone, and/or a laptop or desktop computer connected to the Internet, or anything else connected to the Internet such as your front door bell, or your thermostat, or if you drive a late-model car that is connected to the Internet, you are being monitored. I am not saying that you are necessarily actively being spied upon and listened to, but your actions and speech are being recorded and stored in a database in the Cloud somewhere, where it can be retrieved and analyzed at any time by a real person.

USA - Virginia Republican congressional candidate Yesli Vega rallied supporters on the eve of the election, saying, “We have to take our country back. It’s insane that we’re talking about jailing parents for protecting their children.” To Vega, Democrats have “lost sight of what matters - that we running for office are public servants and that you all are the bosses and you’re in charge.” “It’s insane that you have to be over 18 years of age to get in a tanning bed, but it’s okay for a 12-, 13-year-old to mutilate their bodies,” she continued, speaking of the issue of transgender-identifying children. “We’re sick and tired of a government telling us how to live our lives, how to spend our money, and how to raise our children,” she continued. “We see the heavy hand of government interfering in our daily lives like never before.”

USA - US military forces have been engaged in unauthorized hostilities in many more countries than the Pentagon has disclosed to Congress, let alone the public, according to a major new report released late last week by New York University School of Law’s Brennan Center for Justice.