USA - The fierce debate over the role of religion in American children’s education is about to get even fiercer: satanists are preparing to enter the fray. Rising sums of public money are being channelled to religious establishments across the country and many believers in the separation of church and state fear that the re-election of Donald Trump will bring a wave of Christian nationalists to power nationally. Schools are on the front line of these arguments — and a group called The Satanic Temple has spotted an opening. Its leaders are seriously considering opening a school of their own to spread their provocative message of secularism served with a dash of occult symbolism, according to Lucien Greaves, the co-founder. In the United States The Satanic Temple is an official religion, recognised as a tax-exempt church by the Internal Revenue Service.

UK - This is the sort of river many people would picture in England and Wales — a Wind in the Willows-style home to kingfishers, brown trout and other wildlife; a playground for anglers, children and paddle boarders. The reality is far more grim. “Every single river in England today is polluted,” according to Steve Reed, the environment secretary. When I spoke to him this summer, it was clear the issue was personal for him. He recalled messing about in Cornish rock pools as a child but now, he says, people are too afraid they would fall ill. “Parents and grandparents worry children can’t enjoy our waterways in the same way they could,” he added. The disconnect between then and now — and expectations and reality — is why water bills are going up sharply over the next five years. On Thursday, Ofwat approved a record £104 billion of spending by water firms, large chunks of which are for curbing sewage spills and other pollution.

AUSTRALIA - Advocates say the landmark ABS findings show LGBTI+ people are a substantial part of Australian society. The Australian Bureau of Statistics has revealed for the first time that one in 20 Australians are lesbian, gay, bi, trans or gender diverse, or intersex (LGBTI+). According to ABS head of health statistics, Robert Long, this is the “first nationally representative data of their kind in Australia”. Just.Equal Australia spokesperson Rodney Croome said the data showed diverse communities were a powerful voting bloc ahead of next year’s federal election. “It is a reminder to all political parties that they must have policies recognising the human rights of LGBTI+ people and addressing the disadvantages we face in areas such as health, housing, employment, education and public safety,” he said.

USA - Why is demand at food banks all over the country higher than it has ever been before? The media keeps insisting that economic conditions are just fine, but it has become quite obvious to everyone that this is not true. In particular, the rising cost of living has been absolutely crushing households from coast to coast. In the old days, most of the people that would show up at food banks were unemployed. But now food banks are serving large numbers of people that actually do have jobs but that don’t make enough to pay for all of the basics. The ranks of the “working poor” are growing very rapidly, and this is creating an unprecedented crisis all over America.

USA - Canada. France. Germany. What do they have in common? Central banks in each are cutting rates. Also, their governments have either collapsed or, [in the case of] Canada, about to. Why? Same reason there are rate cuts. It’s not ideology nor really partisanship. It’s the economy, stupid.

GERMANY - Germany's conservative opposition, leading in the polls ahead of February 23 elections, on Tuesday outlined plans to shift the EU powerhouse firmly to the right on immigration, social and economic policy. Friedrich Merz, head of the Christian Democrats (CDU), is tipped to replace Social Democrat Chancellor Olaf Scholz, whose term the conservatives have slammed as "three lost years" for the stuttering economy. A day after Scholz lost a confidence vote he had called to pave the way for the early elections, Merz charged that the chancellor had "lost the confidence of a majority of the population a long time ago". Merz - long a party rival of the CDU's more moderate ex-chancellor Angela Merkel - has steered a return to the party's right-wing roots to try to win support of voters tempted by the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) party.

FRANCE - France economy [in] meltdown as Macron's government turmoil leads to Moody's downgrade. The move from the credit rating giant came after it downgraded France's credit score, citing the country's weak financial outlook and the uncertainties surrounding its political future. French banking stocks fell following a downgrade on seven banks’ ratings by Moody’s, as Paris remains mired in political chaos. Moody's, one of the Big Three credit rating agencies, said in a statement on Tuesday that the assessment reflected the “view that France’s public finances will be substantially weakened over the coming years, because political fragmentation is more likely to impede meaningful fiscal consolidation”.

UK - Britain has become the “western capital” for sharia courts with men able to end their marriages by saying “divorce” three times. An investigation by The Times also discovered that polygamy is so normalised that an app for Muslims in England and Wales to create Islamic wills has a drop-down menu for men to say how many wives they have (between one and four). The app, approved by a sharia court, gives daughters half as much inheritance as sons. The number of sharia courts, also known as councils, in Britain has grown to 85 since they first began operating in the country in 1982. Muslims from across Europe and North America are increasingly turning to Britain’s sharia courts, which operate as informal bodies issuing religious rulings on marriage and family life. About 100,000 Islamic marriages are believed to have been conducted in Britain, many of which are not officially registered with the civil authorities.

YEMEN - Several powerful Israeli airstrikes rocked Yemen's rebel-held capital and a key port city early Thursday, resulting in the deaths of at least nine individuals following a missile launched by Houthi forces targeting central Israel. Thursday's airstrikes threaten to intensify the conflict with the Iranian-backed Houthis, whose assaults on the Red Sea shipping corridor have significantly disrupted global maritime trade. The rebels have thus far avoided the same level of intense military retaliation that has been directed at Palestinian militant group Hamas and Lebanon's Hezbollah, fellow members of Tehran's self-proclaimed "Axis of Resistance." Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz issued a stern warning to the Houthis, stating: "I suggest the leaders of the Houthis to see, to understand and remember: Whoever raises a hand against the state of Israel, his hand will be cut off, whoever harms us - will be harmed sevenfold."

USA - Gavin Newsom has declared a state of emergency over a bird flu outbreak in California. Mr Newsom, the California governor, said the move would allow the state to “expedite” its efforts to contain the outbreak and insisted the risk to the public was “low”. It comes shortly after an individual in Louisiana was sent to hospital with bird flu, marking the US’s first severe reaction to the H5N1 virus. California has recorded 32 of the 61 bird flu infections in the US, according to the Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). There are no signs that the virus has spread between humans in the state, which would be necessary for a pandemic to start. Currently, all cases have been linked to exposure to cattle or birds.

USA - Karl Marx and Henry Ford both understood the key pillar of an industrial economy: the workforce has to earn enough to buy the output of the economy. If the workforce doesn't earn enough to have surplus earnings to spend on the enormous output of an industrial economy, then the producers cannot sell their goods / services at a profit, except to the few at the top as luxury goods - and that's not an industrial economy, it's a feudal economy of very limited scope.

UK - A mental health crisis is unfolding in workplaces worldwide, with financial services emerging among the hardest-hit sectors, the Financial Times reported on Monday, citing recent research. Burnout, depression, and anxiety are the main issues that significantly undermine productivity, economists, business leaders, and health advocates have warned. A survey by global consultancy firm Deloitte revealed that 17% of finance and insurance workers in the UK experience exhaustion, declining performance, and mental distancing, compared to a 12% average across all sectors.

USA - Residents of New Jersey have been urged not to shoot down suspected drones in the sky, as the public takes matters into their own hands after days of hysteria over “UFOs”. The FBI released a statement warning the public that they risked blinding pilots of manned aircraft in their attempts to take down the mystery drones by shining lasers up at the sky, and urged them not to shoot them down by using guns. “FBI Newark and New Jersey State Police want to warn the public about an increase in pilots of manned aircraft being hit in the eyes with lasers because people on the ground think they see an Unmanned Aircraft System (UAS),” the agency said. “There is also a concern with people possibly firing weapons at what they believe to be a UAS but could be a manned aircraft.”

USA - The strange lights in the sky are real. The panic across America is real. But is it an alien invasion? A terrorist attack? A foreign spying mission? A sick hoax? Or is the US government deliberately spreading fear among its own citizens? And could Britain be next? There are more questions than answers as millions of Americans worry about the bright orbs and triangular objects that are increasingly swarming the night skies. It’s like a modern-day version of Orson Welles’ famed radio broadcast dramatising HG Wells’ sci-fi drama War of the Worlds, which in 1938 spread panic across America as many believed that a real alien invasion was under way. Except this time, the lights in the sky are not fictional.

ISRAEL - Israel has said that it will take “full security control” of the Gaza Strip once fighting has ended, as negotiators edged closer towards a deal to release the hostages still being held in the enclave. Hopes of a ceasefire have been rising for several days, with sources on both sides briefing that an agreement, which would halt the conflict in exchange for the release of hostages, was closer than ever before. This week, Israeli negotiators arrived in Qatar to work through the remaining impediments to a deal. Qatar, along with Egypt and the US, has been acting as a mediator throughout the talks. The two sides’ positions are said to have narrowed significantly over recent weeks, with Hamas having shown greater flexibility around Israel’s demand for its forces to remain in the Philadelphi corridor, a strip of land along Gaza’s border with Egypt, and the Netzarim corridor, which divides the enclave.