USA - The rivalry between two of the world’s most powerful technology billionaires is moving into a new arena — the race to link human minds directly with machines. Sam Altman, chief executive of OpenAI, the company behind ChatGPT, was once an ally of Elon Musk, the Tesla and SpaceX boss. Now the former partners are preparing to face off in the fast-developing field of brain–computer interfaces (BCIs). These systems typically use artificial intelligence to translate brain activity into commands a computer can follow. They have enabled people with paralysis to control devices using only their thoughts. Advocates believe BCIs will one day allow humans to merge with advanced AI. Musk’s company, Neuralink, began testing its technology on patients in the US last year and recently gained approval for a trial in Britain, its first in Europe. Altman is now backing a rival, Merge Labs, which aims to harness recent advances in AI to make BCIs faster and more capable, according to the Financial Times.

DENMARK - There was a time when Danish wind farm behemoth Ørsted was the toast of its homeland. Its transition from one of the most coal-intensive utilities on the planet to a trailblazer in offshore wind energy over the space of just a few years was hailed as one of the most remarkable corporate transformations ever witnessed. What’s more, it was widely regarded as firm evidence that those who had built the current energy system were the right people to spearhead the creation of an entirely new one. Yet it was a spectacularly short-lived renaissance even by the profligate standards of the renewables industry. Indeed, the company has quickly gone from being a source of great pride to national embarrassment as the wheels come off the miraculous Ørsted reinvention at alarming speed. The succession of recent chief executives has a lot to answer for. A company that has tended to build wind farms whatever the cost is now discovering the importance of building ones that make money.

UK - Humiliation for Keir Starmer as half of Labour supporters say his government is failing. Sir Keir Starmer has rejected demands for an immediate general election after more than 700,000 people signed a petition. The petition on the official Parliament website called for a fresh ballot, which is not due until 2029, to be held following Labour's landslide victory in July last year. It said: "We want an immediate general election to be held. We think the majority need and want change." The petition has now received a response from the Government after receiving well over the required 10,000 signatures. Sir Keir and Chancellor Rachel Reeves are reportedly set to make the case for more tax rises in the run-up to the Budget, expected in November, but any increases are likely to dent Labour’s popularity further.

UK - Our country has changed. I remember a time when calling the police meant they would actually come. Now? When my kids were robbed, the police told me there weren’t enough resources to send someone. I had to do the dangerous legwork myself. I risked my life and the press called me “vigilante mum.” Well, Reform is for every vigilante mum out there. For every parent who feels sick with worry when their kids leave the house, for every parent who’s been looked down on, ignored, insulted, and silenced. For everyone fighting to protect their family – only to be told to “calm down and shut up” while the Government places unvetted foreign men on their doorstep.

GERMANY - Between Alternative for Germany and France’s National Rally, populists continue to rise in Europe’s most powerful countries. The far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) has become the most popular party in the country, according to a striking new poll published Tuesday. If a national election were now held, 26 percent of Germans would vote for the AfD, according to a poll carried out by the Forsa Institute for Social Research and Statistical Analysis. That result puts the far-right party ahead of German Chancellor Friedrich Merz’s mainstream conservative bloc, which slid to second with 24 percent support in the poll. With the far-right National Rally already leading clearly in France, the bombshell German survey is likely to fuel unease among mainstream leaders across Europe. Right-wing populist parties have performed strongly in elections in recent years from Poland to Romania, and Portugal to the Netherlands. In Britain, Nigel Farage’s hard-right Reform UK is also topping polls amid broad public dissatisfaction with Prime Minister Keir Starmer’s Labour government.

GERMANY - “80 years since the Holocaust, and Germany is once again supporting Nazism.” That’s what National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir wrote on X/Twitter in response to German Foreign Minister Johann Wadephul’s comments last month that Berlin would now begin the process of formally recognizing a Palestinian state. Ben-Gvir’s incendiary comparison between supporting the rights of Palestinians with supporting Nazism reflects the deep emotional charge in Israel surrounding the German discourse. Beneath the outrage, however, lies a genuine concern: Is Germany quietly diluting the long-held principle that Israel’s security is part of its Staatsrason, its essential and moral core interest? This concern is also growing in light of Chancellor Friedrich Merz’s statement that Germany will not transfer to Israel any weapons that could be used in the Gaza Strip.

ISRAEL - Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has rejected the accusation that Israel is committing genocide in Gaza, but at a recent press conference he employed a reference which stunned press pool reporters. "If we had wanted to commit genocide, it would have taken exactly one afternoon," he had said, as quoted in Times of Israel. This comes as Israeli forces are increasingly accused of intentionally using starvation tactics to gain total submission of the enclave, which Tel Aviv has rejected as false.

EUROPE - European arms factories have been expanding three times faster than they did before the escalation of the Ukraine conflict, with more than 7 million square meters of new industrial development since 2022, the Financial Times has reported. According to the FT’s analysis of more than 1,000 radar satellite passes, building activity at European weapons plants now suggests “rearmament on a historic scale.” Moscow has condemned what it calls the West’s “reckless militarization.”

CANADA - Medical Assistance in Dying (MAID), Canada’s preferred euphemism for euthanasia, has become so popular practitioners struggle to meet demand. According to government figures for 2023, the last full year of statistics available, MAID accounted for 4.7 percent of deaths nationwide, making Canada second only to the Netherlands. In Quebec, the figure is over seven percent, giving it the highest euthanasia rate in the world.

USA - The Supreme Court has been asked to overturn gay marriage a decade after it was legalised. Kim Davis, the former Kentucky county clerk, filed a petition calling on justices to take away the right to marry for same-sex couples, claiming the original ruling was “egregiously wrong”. Davis, 59, served five days in prison in 2015 for refusing to issue marriage licences to David Ermold and David Moore on religious grounds shortly after same-sex marriage was legalised. She was ordered to pay $100,000 to the couple for emotional damages and $260,000 to cover their attorney fees. In a 90-day writ filed last month, Davis appealed the payments, arguing her First Amendment protections to practise her religion freely protected her. She also urged the high court to review its decision in the Obergefell v Hodges case, which extended marriage rights for same-sex couples, describing it as “legal fiction”. “The mistake must be corrected,” Liberty Counsel, the nonprofit law firm representing Davis, wrote in the petition.

ISRAEL - "Islamic jihad" is often a phrase referenced in the media as "simply" antisemitic, anti-Zionist, or anti-Israel. In reality, however, Islamic jihad is an ongoing holy war against infidels, meaning everyone who is not Muslim. This term pits the entire Muslim Islamic world against everyone else. Proof can be found on the streets of Tehran and in multiple cities in the United States, with the shouts of “Death to America” in the same breath as “Death to Israel” and the desecration of their respective national symbols. The reality of the Muslim goal of world dominance can be seen throughout Islamic history to the present. A very revealing current example of this phenomenon can be found in Israel, in Bethlehem – so precious to Christians.

PAKISTAN - Pakistan’s Army Chief, General Asim Munir, has been on a tour of the United States over several days, which included attendance at a farewell function for the chief of the US Central Command, General Michael Kurilla. The trip is said to be General Munir's second visit in less than two months. While in Tampa (where CENTCOM's HQ base is located), General Munir also spoke at a private event for the Pakistani diaspora in America. His words there have set off outrage and condemnation from India on Monday, including fresh nuclear sabre-rattling. "We are a nuclear power. If we go down, we’ll take half the world with us," Munir reportedly had stated. What has heightened the anger in New Delhi is that this is the first time a top Pakistani official has issued an apparent nuclear threat from US soil.

USA - Although the backlash to the overturning of Roe v Wade appears to have subsided, vandals, arsonists, and worse, targeted hundreds of churches in 2024, according to a new report. Travis Weber, vice president for policy and government affairs at the Family Research Council, which released the report Monday, said most Americans would be surprised to hear that 383 churches suffered 415 attacks in 2024. “We have a tendency in the West and in the United States to think of ourselves as safe and freedom-loving, tolerant, and protective of religious freedom, including religious freedom to practice Christianity,” he told The Daily Signal in an interview Friday. “So, I think the fact that we have hundreds of incidents — specifically, 415 — in the year 2024 is very revealing.”

USA - Trump order targets political debanking but spares Visa, Mastercard, Payment Processor Monopolies. The White House has decided that banks shouldn’t play political bouncer, at least the banks that answer to federal regulators. In a flourish of pen and podium, President Donald Trump signed an executive order that supposedly halts “politically motivated debanking.” That’s the practice where someone loses their bank account, not because they bounced checks or defaulted, but because someone behind a desk didn’t like their politics, religion, or choice of lawful business.

USA - Europe needs to “step up and take a bigger role” in funding Ukraine in its war against Russia, JD Vance, the US vice-president, said on Sunday. Speaking to Fox News, he claimed Americans were “sick” of spending their tax dollars abroad and Washington was “done funding” Kyiv. “If you care so much about this conflict, you should be willing to play a more direct and a more substantial way in funding this war yourself,” he said. He spoke as European leaders again scrambled to build a united defence behind Ukraine, after President Trump suggested he may cut a deal with President Putin that could mean Ukraine has to concede territory.