SWEDEN - It was all for nothing. Really, for nothing. The miseries we inflicted on ourselves after March 2020 — the school closures, the ruined businesses, the debts, the authoritarianism — were caused by a moment of lightheaded panic. How can I be so sure? Because, three-and-a-half years on, the results are in. And, let me warn you, they make dismal reading for anyone who went along with the lockdowns. You see, there was a counterfactual all along. Sweden did not impose mask mandates or stay-at-home orders. It did not close its borders or its businesses. Other than banning large meetings, it carried on as normal and told people to use their common sense.

USA - Much has been said and is being said regarding the proxy war between the US and Russia. Those of us in the West rely primarily on news reports. Virtually all news that we see in the media was created by one of three agencies – Associated Press, Reuters, and, to a lesser degree, AFP. All three companies are owned by the same parent companies, who, in turn, own most of the Western corporatist structure, and, not surprisingly, the reports that they distribute to the media are boilerplate. As such, the TV news tends to be uniform, and whenever a new catch-phrase pops up, such as “extreme right activists” or “January sixth insurrection,” it tends to appear in all major media on the very same day and is then used ubiquitously. We, therefore, receive only one “truth,” and we’re left to either accept it or comb the internet for alternate possibilities.

USA - Until recently, Bryan Johnson was paying hundreds of thousands of dollars to infuse one litre of his teenage son’s youthful plasma into his own ageing blood stream every month. “I’ve never paid more attention to what he’s eating … because that was going into my body,” the 46-year-old American tech entrepreneur says on new podcast The Immortals. He also pumped his own plasma into his 70-year-old father’s body to help improve his declining physical and cognitive health: “It was one of the most meaningful moments in his entire life. And it was the same for me.”

USA - If you hold precious metals in your portfolio, there is a good chance you fear hyperinflation and the crash of fiat currencies. You probably distrust governments in general and believe they are self-serving and have no interest in your economic well-being. It is likely that your holdings in gold are your lifeline – your hope to get you through these times while holding on to your wealth. But have you ever given any thought to the possibility of having this lifeline confiscated by the authorities?

UKRAINE - Ukraine is spending approximately $100 million a day on the war against Russia, outgoing Defence Minister Oleksii Reznikov said in an interview with state media. In a lengthy sit-down with state-owned Ukrinform for his first interview since his ousting on Sunday, the former defence minister attempted to dispel suggestions of his involvement in the mounting corruption scandals swirling around the war effort. However, he did not reveal how much of the daily $100 million spent on the war came from the Ukrainian people as opposed to being subsidised by taxpayers in the United States and Europe. On top of the $113 billion committed by the Biden administration to Ukraine since last year, the White House is currently lobbying for an additional $24 billion in aid to the country.

USA - Ancient Rome was the world’s most powerful empire for 500 years. At its height, Rome boasted of roads, public baths, and much else that was close to miraculous for the rest of the planet. Then came the Great Fall, and what happened has lessons for the world today. As ancient Rome became prosperous, it became an unsustainable welfare state. Mumford writes that “indiscriminate public largesse” became common. A large portion of the population “took on the parasitic role for a whole lifetime.” More than 200,000 citizens of Rome regularly received handouts of bread from “public storehouses.”

UK - There’s little dispute that people, more and more, in the modern world are moving away from the biblical teachings on homosexuality (a sin), premarital sex (also a sin), and same-sex “marriages,” (yes, also a sin). Now the United Kingdom-base Christian Concern has cited the recent Times poll results of responses from pastors which found 53% say the Church of England should allow priests to conduct same-sex “weddings,” 62% said the church should drop its opposition to premarital sex, and 64.5% said the church should abandon the biblical teachings that homosexual practice is “incompatible with Scripture.” And 63.3% said priests should be allowed to enter same-sex civil partnerships.

“To survive and thrive the Church of England needs leadership that believes the Bible and puts it into practice. Simply aping the current values of the culture around us is the road to extinction for the Church of England.” Williams explained the church should not be changing its beliefs to accommodate society’s whims.

UK - The copper wires that have kept the UK connected since the 19th Century will cease to work in 2025, with all phones using broadband tech to connect to the network. While many Brits perhaps make little use of their landline phones, the idea of one being there in case of need is still a reassuring thought. But a landmark change is coming and it's not far away. Traditional landlines connected through old-fashioned copper wires will cease to work in 2025 as the ageing landline telephone network will be switched off. That means every household will need a broadband connection in order to use a landline phone, using a system called VoIP - Voice over Internet Protocol. Explaining more, BT said on its help page: "The Public Switch Telephone Network (PSTN) will close in December 2025. This won’t just affect voice services, it may also mean you need to upgrade your broadband. Any equipment that currently uses the PSTN will stop working: alarms, EPOS machines, door entry systems, CCTV, faxes, and so on."

CHINA - The Chinese Communist Party’s “standard map” is updated each year to include Beijing’s ever-extending territorial claims. Neighbors see it as a sinister measure of Beijing’s imperialist threat, but to the party it is a sacred document, a badge of legitimacy, encapsulating its historic grievances and its growing ambition. It must be faithfully reproduced in school textbooks and in government and corporate handouts and plastered to the walls of workplaces and classrooms. The timing of the latest edition is unfortunate — or perhaps deliberate — coming just ahead of next week’s summit of G20 countries in Delhi...

VATICAN - Pope Francis arrived in Mongolia on Friday morning to encourage one of the world’s smallest and newest Catholic communities. It’s the first time a pope has visited the landlocked Asian country and comes at a time when the Vatican’s relations with Mongolia’s two powerful neighbors, Russia and China, are once again strained. Francis arrived in the Mongolian capital Ulaanbaatar after an overnight flight passing through Chinese airspace, affording the pontiff a rare opportunity to send a note of greetings to President Xi Jinping. Vatican protocol calls for the pope to send such greetings whenever he flies over a foreign country.

More than 1.4 million new cases of Covid-19 and over 1,800 deaths attributed to the disease were registered around the world from July 31 to August 27, the World Health Organization said on Friday. The figures represent a 38% increase in the number of cases and a 50% decrease in the number of deaths from the previous 28-day period, the WHO said in its weekly bulletin. South Korea had the highest number of both new cases (1,296,710) and deaths (596), the WHO said. Italy had almost 27,000 new cases, followed by the UK with 26,000.

USA - The largest wildfire in Louisiana history is still raging in a southwestern area of the state, and investigators now say that arson is to blame for it. On August 22, a fire dubbed the Tiger Island Fire broke out in southwestern Louisiana, about five miles from the Texas border. The fire has since ravaged nearly 50 square miles, destroyed at least 20 structures, including homes, and forced all 1,200 residents of Merryville to evacuate their town temporarily. That evacuation order has since been lifted. The latest reports indicate that the fire is currently about 50% contained. Last Saturday, nearly two weeks after the fire first began, investigators with the Enforcement Division of the Louisiana Department of Agriculture and Forestry had determined that the wildfire was the result of arson.

USA - “Queer” American Library Association head wants to destroy traditional family values by filling children’s minds with pornography depicting “gay people doing gay things”. The American Accountability Foundation (AAF) has published a shocking report about American Library Foundation (ALF) President Emily Drabinski, a self-described "queer" Marxist who has made it her business to subvert traditional family values and morals every chance she gets. An AAF investigation reveals that Drabinski has basically made "subversion" her life's mission. Concerning local and state laws prohibiting LGBT groomers from indoctrinating and trying to convert children to their cult, Drabinski does not feel as though she needs to abide by them.

GERMANY - Dealing with the fallout of the COVID-19 pandemic and defense issues in the wake of the war in Ukraine have torn deep holes in the state budget. The "debt brake" limiting state expenditure as enshrined in the constitution is creating additional pressure in the coalition. The FDP does not want to incur any new debts from 2024. This is to be achieved through massive budget cuts while raising taxes for the rich is out of the question for the liberals. The country is slipping further and further into crisis, and a recession is looming. The economy is weakening, energy-intensive production facilities may be moved abroad because of the high electricity prices. In the face of inflation, citizens are wondering how to manage their daily expenses. Anyone looking for an affordable apartment faces almost insurmountable problems and the mayors in towns and communities no longer know where to accommodate asylum seekers.

VATICAN - Pope Francis has doubled down in his personal war on fossil fuels while condemning “extreme practices” such as fracking. It is time world leaders “listen to science and institute a rapid and equitable transition to end the era of fossil fuel,” the pontiff urges in his message for the Feast of Creation, to be celebrated on September 1. It is “absurd to permit the continued exploration and expansion of fossil fuel infrastructures,” he insists. “Let us raise our voices to halt this injustice towards the poor and towards our children, who will bear the worst effects of climate change.”