Informing, engaging & connecting the people of the world. DECEMBER 4, 2019

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VIDEO: Surging violence by criminal gangs in Central America has led to an increase of asylum seekers at the southern U.S. border. As local authorities in Honduras and El Salvador struggle to counter the gangs and drug smugglers, theU.S. military is trying to help.

ON THIS DAY IN AMERICAN HISTORY On December 4, 1783, George Washington, who was commanding general of the Continental Army, informs his officers that following the defeat of the British forces, he will resign his commission and return to private life. Washington led American forces for six years during the Revolutionary War. In 1789, after being coaxed back into public life, Washington was elected first president of the United States. He was in office until 1797.

NATO leaders gathered at a golf resort outside of London Wednesday to present a united front amid bitter differences over terrorism, Turkey and increased burden sharing with the United States.

Unknown gunmen have killed a Japanese aid worker and his five colleagues in eastern Afghanistan. Officials said the deadly shooting took place Wednesday morning in Jalalabad, the capital of Nangarhar province.

VIDEO: Imagine if your car can sense your emotions and play happy music when you are sad. That’s what a team of researchers at Texas A&M University is working on by looking at brain waves that correlate to different human emotions. Ultimately, they plan to take what they learn and “teach” it to an autonomous vehicle.

Lebanon has been reeling from political instability and the financial crisis which sparked mass protests that began in mid-October. And like everyone else in Lebanon, refugees from Syria face plummeting salaries and skyrocketing prices, as street brawls between protesting groups raise the specter of a new war.