USA - This school year, colleges and universities across the country will be offering courses on "queering" children, the Bible, and theology in general. Pomona College, for instance, will offer a course arguing that "the figure of the Child" is used to "justify continued cultural investment in reproductive heteronormativity and productive ablebodiedness."

UK - Rising numbers of women are entering the priesthood as a second career, Church of England figures show. Women are being encouraged to join after movements such as #MeToo boosted their confidence and prompted male clergy to offer them more support, church leaders suggested. Following in the footsteps of the Bishop of London, Sarah Mullally, who joined the Church after a successful career in nursing, the number of women aged 40 to 54 being accepted for ordination has grown by 32 per cent in two years. 

Catherine Nancekievill, the church's head of discipleship and vocation, said that "changing attitudes are definitely a factor". "Men actually championing women's ministry and getting behind it really seems to have shifted over the last ten years, and congregations becoming more accepting as well," she said.

ISRAEL - Israel’s UN envoy Danny Danon slammed the global body’s Secretary-General Antonio Guterres for proposing ways to “protect” Palestinians in Gaza from Israel, saying that the only protection they need is from their terrorist leaders.  In a 14-page report, Guterres suggested, among other things, deploying an armed UN military or police force for the “physical protection” of Palestinians. “The only protection the Palestinian people need is from their own leadership,” Danon said in a statement.

GERMANY - Germany's finance minister warned that a "German Trump" may seize power as he claimed pension reform is the key to preventing the rise of populism in Europe. “Stable pensions prevent a German Trump. That's why politicians should not shirk this topic,” Olaf Scholz, who is also vice-chancellor, said yesterday. Mr Scholz has been pushing for government reforms similar to the UK’s triple lock to ensure pension levels remain stable despite inflation.

GERMANY - A Hitler lookalike was among more than 600 far-right extremists who took to the streets of Berlin today to commemorate the death of a leading Nazi. Counter-demonstrators clashed with the neo-Nazi activists as bottles and stones were thrown during the clashes.  The neo-Nazi supporters held a banner reading 'I regret nothing' as they marched through the German capital in memory of Rudolf Hess today. They waved colours of the old German Reich and were protected by police in riot gear as they chanted in the streets.

VENEZUELA - Chaos and confusion erupted across Venezuela, and most stores were shuttered on Saturday, after president Nicolas Maduro announced that the government would enact a massive currency devaluation, implement a new minimum wage, hike taxes, and also raise gasoline prices for most citizens even as the country struggles with the greatest hyperinflation on record, surpassing even that of the Weimar Republic. As a result of the enacted actions, the new version of the bolivar will be pegged to the value of the state cryptocurrency, the etro, which according to Bloomberg amounts to a 95% devaluation of the official rate, and will trade in line with where the black market was; the government will also raise the minimum wage more than 3,000 percent, which works out to about $30 a month.

UK - Tarot readings have long been met with superstition, often thought to involve mystical powers… But now tarot readers have revealed that millennials are reaching for the cards more than ever before. Students and young professionals are turning to tarot in a bid to help them navigate through the pressures of social media and uncertainty over Brexit, according to industry experts. 

UGANDA - The recent crackdown on opposition leaders and the media in Uganda are clear signs the country is slowly sinking into anarchy and becoming a lawless state. This could lead to instability, writes DW's Isaac Mugabi. Once hailed as a freedom fighter and liberator, Uganda's President Yoweri Museveni, who has been in power since 1986, is turning into an autocratic leader, bent on silencing the opposition and suppressing the media in order to maintain a firm grip on his power. This only confirms that Uganda, like some other countries in the region, is slowly degenerating into a failed state.

UK - More than a third of farmed fruit and vegetables never makes it on to shop shelves because it is misshapen or the wrong size, according to research. A university study estimated that over 50 million tonnes of fresh produce grown across Europe is discarded annually, mainly because it does not meet supermarkets’ and consumers’ standards of how it ought to look. In the UK, the figure stands at up to 4.5 million tonnes, the team suggests. The research paper described food loss and waste (FLW) as “one of the great scourges of our time”, when 10% of the world’s population is chronically hungry. Their findings stated: “The use of aesthetics for classifying and accepting fresh food for sale and consumption is built into food quality standards and regulations of the European Union.”

USA - Watch Out California! 53 Major Earthquakes (Including A Magnitude 8.2) Just Hit The Ring Of Fire In A 24 Hour Period. Not too long ago, I wrote about how “Earth changes” seem to be accelerating all over the world, but even I was stunned by the ferocity of the seismic activity that we witnessed over the weekend.  Because none of the earthquakes happened in the United States, the mainstream media almost entirely ignored this story, but that is a huge mistake.  The entire west coast of the US falls along the “Ring of Fire”, and experts assure us that it is only a matter of time before the seismic tension that is building up along the tectonic plates in that area is released.

UK - Police in Britain arrested more than 3,000 foreign nationals each week on average last year, according to new figures which revealed the share of overseas suspects rose to make up one in five people detained. Officers were arresting around 3,320 aliens each week, according to the figures, which were reported by the Mail after police chiefs warned crime tourism poses a growing threat to Britain as a result of “mass migration”, “globalisation” and ease of international travel.

USA - When President Trump said Saturday morning that his administration was going to fight back against Big Tech's discriminatory policies, he had already taken the first step. From NPR: Housing and Urban Development [HUD] Secretary Ben Carson is accusing tech behemoth Facebook of engaging in housing discrimination, according to a complaint filed on Friday.

USA - President Trump on Saturday issued a tweet-storm following the removal of conspiracy theorist Alex Jones and his InfoWars shows from most major social media platforms earlier this month. “Social Media is totally discriminating against Republican/Conservative voices,” the president wrote in the first of several tweets. “Speaking loudly and clearly for the Trump Administration, we won’t let that happen.”

USA - Facebook says it had mistakenly deleted videos and limited the reach of US conservative educational organization PragerU. The content has now been restored, but PragerU supporters don't think it was an accident. PragerU (short for Prager University, after its founder Dennis Prager) says nine of its posts reached none of its three million-odd followers, and at least two videos were deleted for "hate speech," in what many conservatives see as part of Facebook's ongoing censorship campaign. Facebook has now apologized and restored the content, but has offered no explanation beyond "we're looking into it."

UNITED NATIONS - US Ambassador Nikki Haley delivered powerful remarks on July 24 at a UN Security Council Debate on the Middle East. She began by addressing the continuing attacks on Israel from Gaza: “In the last three months, the terrorist flaming swastika kites that have crossed over from Gaza into Israel have damaged or destroyed 7,500 acres of land. While the international media pays very careful attention to every step Israel takes in self-defense, we must not lose sight of the very real damage that is being done to Israel from terrorist attacks coming from Gaza.”