GERMANY - Three days ago, in the aftermath of the WSJ report seeking to radically shift the narrative over the Nordstream sabotage, where instead of the CIA being blamed for the explosion of the critical gas pipeline from Russia to Europe, unnamed "intelligence" sources forged on with a hilarious script according to which a top Ukraine general (operating initially under the instructions of Zelensky but then going rogue when Z got "cold feet") was responsible for coordinating the sabotage using a handful of rank amateurs who somehow managed to sneak to the bottom of the Baltic sea and conduct an unprecedented military operation, we said that - no matter the laughable veracity of the report - relations between Germany and Ukraine are "about to turn ugly", and we asked why this story is coming out just now?

USA - The “security” being implemented ahead of the Democrat National Convention in Chicago is the most draconian demonstration of government force that we’ve seen in this nation. The Department of Defense is preparing for a possible bio-chemical attack. Code names are being used for travelling VIPs. Operatives are being embedded in protestor groups. Is something bigger happening than just a party’s convention? In the shadows of the Democratic National Convention (DNC), a web of secrecy and control has begun to tighten its grip not just around the convention centers, but across the city of Chicago, hinting at a much larger, more sinister operation at play.

SWITZERLAND - The World Health Organization (WHO) acted as expected this week and declared Mpox a Public Health Emergency of International Concern (PHEIC). So, a problem in a small number of African countries that has killed about the same number of people this year as die every four hours from tuberculosis has come to dominate international headlines. This is raising a lot of angst from some circles against the WHO.

USA - Teachers are quitting in droves as a new generation of appallingly behaved students push their patience to the limit. Born between roughly 2010 and the end of 2024, Generation Alpha will make up the largest cohort of children ever to live on planet earth. However, the two billion-plus toddlers and pre-teens are already being cited for their illiteracy, unruly behavior and an uncontrollable addiction to screens. Many blame lockdowns and school closures during the pandemic for the rise in bad behavior, while some are pointing the finger at Millennial parents who are opting to distract children with technology rather than properly discipline them.

USA - While allowing little kids to stare at a computer screen often gives parents a much-needed respite, new research suggests cutting back on the practice, with early tablet use linked to increased outbursts later on. Children logging 75 minutes or more of daily screen time at 3 1/2 years old were more apt to outbursts of anger and frustration a year later, a study published in the journal JAMA Pediatrics found. Further, the findings suggest a vicious cycle is in play, with little kids who were more apt toward expressions of anger and frustration at 4 1/2 years old likely to spend even more time on an iPad a year later.

USA - With antisemitism rising across the globe, from assaults to graffiti, a new analysis finds the political motivation of perpetrators skews decisively to the left, with extreme progressives far more likely to commit such attacks as compared to Islamists or far-right activists like neo-Nazis. The new findings come as the Democratic National Committee braces for potential unrest from anti-Israel protesters at its nominating convention next week in Chicago just days after presumptive nominee Kamala Harris was confronted at a New York fundraiser by a protest that required some arrests. The weekly Global Antisemitism Report published by the Combat Antisemitism Movement analyzed 113 incidents that targeted Jewish victims worldwide and found that 57.5% of the perpetrators were identified as far leftists, 22.1% of them were Islamists, 11.5% were unknown and 8.9% were done by far-right extremists.

RUSSIA - A volcano has erupted in Russia after a 7.0 magnitude earthquake struck off the eastern coast of the country, according to state-run media. The Russian news agency, TASS, reported that the Shiveluch volcano in the region of Kamchatka started to erupt Saturday. CNN noted that the volcano is about 280 miles from the coastal city of Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky, which has a population of 180,000. Scientists told TASS that the ash column is rising up to 8 kilometers — about 5 miles — above sea level. The volcano has also released a gush of lava, according to TASS. TASS reported that the daily lives of residents in the area were not affected by the eruption, just that ashfall may be reported in nearby populated areas. The earthquake struck about 63 miles east of Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky and occurred 18 miles below the surface, according to the US Geological Survey.

USA - The New York Times recently published a long story warning that the planet’s climate tipping points are frighteningly near. The “great systems in the natural world,” the reporters say, “might be pushing toward collapse” due to man’s use of fossil fuel. Maybe so. Or the changes we’re seeing in the climate might be entirely natural. We pick on the mighty New York Times here, but it’s the legacy media’s great pleasure to spread misleading information and conjecture about the climate. About the only truth we can know about the claims surrounding anthropogenic global warming is that it’s “political, not physical, science.”

IRAN - Iran’s “supreme leader” Ayatollah Ali Khamenei warned his underlings in a meeting on Wednesday that making a “nontactical retreat” would meet the “divine wrath” of Allah as the world awaits a highly touted attack by Tehran on neighboring Israel. Iranian officials have been boasting that they would attack Israel for all of August following the elimination of Hamas “political” chief Ismail Haniyeh on July 31. Haniyeh was killed by a yet-unexplained explosion in his lodgings in Tehran, which he was visiting to attend the inauguration of President Masoud Pezeshkian. Iran is believed to be one of the top funders and political supporters of Hamas, the genocidal terrorist organization responsible for the massacre, torture, and abduction of hundreds of Israeli civilians in an unprecedented siege on October 7.

MIDDLE EAST - There is a rising risk of “full-scale regional war” in the Middle East, the foreign secretary, David Lammy, has warned, amid frantic international efforts to calm tensions with Iran and reach a ceasefire agreement between Israel and Hamas. With the US secretary of state, Antony Blinken, flying into Israel this weekend to push for a deal, Lammy has joined forces with his French counterpart, Stéphane Séjourné, to warn that now is a “perilous moment” for the region in the midst of widespread fears of escalation involving Tehran and allied militias in Lebanon, Iraq, Syria and Yemen.

USA - Every @harleydavidson rider is going to want to see this. It sure sounds like CEO Jochen Zeitz admits that he took the Harley job because it was an opportunity to transform an American icon into embracing wokeness and DEI. Read the quotes below carefully. He said this at a Synergos ‘David Rockefeller Leadership Award’ event. Synergos says they work to “dismantle systems that create the most urgent problems of our time... social injustice and climate change.” Doesn’t that just scream HARLEY-DAVIDSON!?

USA - Growing up in rural Michigan, Nina Job got familiar with peers and people in her community following a “traditional trajectory.” That meant “you go to college, you get married, you have 2.5 kids, you know — happy home, white picket fence type-thing,” she tells CNBC Make It. But moving to New York gave her a new perspective: “I remember being 20 and so surprised to meet single people much older than what I was used to ever seeing back home who were happy.” The varied domestic situations she encountered “opened my eyes to the possibility of so many different lifestyles, and just non-traditional family setups,” the now-36-year-old says.

USA - Gavin Newsom, the California governor, on Friday signed a bipartisan package of 10 bills that aims to crack down on smash-and-grab robberies and property crimes, making it easier to go after repeat shoplifters and auto thieves and increase penalties for those running professional reselling schemes. The move comes as Democratic leadership works to prove that they are tough enough on crime while trying to convince voters to reject a ballot measure that would bring even harsher sentences for repeat offenders of shoplifting and drug charges. While shoplifting has been a growing problem, large-scale, smash-and-grab thefts, in which groups of individuals brazenly rush into stores and take goods in plain sight, have become a crisis in California and elsewhere in recent years. Such crimes, often captured on video and posted on social media, have brought particular attention to the problem of retail theft in the state.

USA - Elites in the Democratic party are truly shameless. They'd already committed an egregious affront to democracy by covering up President Joe Biden's infirmity for months and then hand-picking his successor. It was even worse that Vice President Kamala Harris, their anointed nominee, had never won a single vote in a presidential primary contest. And it's an ongoing insult that Harris has yet to submit to a single interview or news conference in the 24 days that she's been her party's new standard-bearer. Almost 80 days out from the election (and only a month from the start of early voting in some states), Harris is yet to reveal an iota of what she actually wants to do as president.

GERMANY - German authorities have issued an arrest warrant for a Ukrainian man on suspicion of being part of a team that blew up the Nord Stream gas pipelines in the Baltic Sea, according to local media reports. The man, a diving instructor identified only as Volodymyr Z, is last believed to have lived in Poland, and is alleged to have dived 80 metres to the seabed at night to plant explosive devices on the pipelines, which ran from Russia to Germany, in September 2022. Despite evidence that Volodymyr Z may have had the backing of high-ranking military officials, there is no suggestion that the Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskiy was aware of the attack or that it was state-sanctioned. Russia and the west have blamed one another for being behind the destruction of the pipelines, which stood as an ugly reminder for many of German dependence on Russian gas. Everyone accused has so far denied involvement.