EUROPE - The Internet just changed forever, but most people living in the United States don’t even realize what just happened. A draconian new law known as the “Digital Services Act” went into effect in the European Union on Friday, and it establishes an extremely strict regime of Internet censorship that is far more authoritarian than anything we have ever seen before. From this point forward, hordes of European bureaucrats will be the arbiters of what is acceptable to say on the Internet. If they discover something that you have said on a large online platform that they do not like, they can force that platform to take it down, because someone in Europe might see it. So even though this is a European law, the truth is that it is going to have a tremendous impact on all of us. Starting on August 25th, 2023, tech giants like Google, Facebook, Amazon, and more must comply with sweeping legislation that holds online platforms legally accountable for the content posted to them. Even though this new law was passed in the EU, we’ll likely see far-reaching global effects as companies adjust their policies to comply. And so that means that “hundreds of unelected EU bureaucrats” will be in control of speech on the Internet now…

UK - In a major shift in attitudes over the past decade, a survey of priests in England conducted by the Times found that more than half supported a change in law to allow clergy to conduct the marriage of gay couples, with 53.4% in favour compared with 36.5% against. The last time Anglican priests in England were asked, in 2014, shortly after the legalisation of same-sex civil marriage, 51% said same-sex marriage was “wrong”, compared with 39% who approved. Last year a row erupted at the first Lambeth conference (a meeting of Anglican bishops from around the world) in 14 years, when the archbishop of Canterbury faced sharp criticism for affirming a 1998 declaration that gay sex was a sin. But the new poll found that 64.5% of priests in England backed an end to the teaching that “homosexual practice is incompatible with scripture”. The survey also found that three-quarters of respondents thought Britain could no longer be described as a Christian country. Almost two-thirds (64.2%) said Britain could be called Christian “but only historically, not currently”.

USA - Homes were ripped to shreds by the storm surge and extreme winds in the hardest-hit areas of Florida’s Gulf Coast, including places like Horseshoe Beach, which is south of where Category 3 Hurricane Idalia crashed ashore. Trucks were tossed around like toys by the destructive force of water driven inland by the hurricane. Metal was twisted and strewn about as boats were ripped from their mooring. Debris clogged canals as trees were stripped and toppled over in many areas. President Biden declared a major disaster in Florida on Thursday morning in Hurricane Idalia’s wake. “The President’s action makes Federal funding available to affected individuals in the counties of Citrus, Dixie, Hamilton, Lafayette, Levy, Suwannee, and Taylor,” the White House said in a statement. “There are some communities that may never look the same and others that will get rebuilt that will look slightly different,” Moskowitz told CNN. "This is a life-changing event for some of these counties.”

USA - Electric customers across parts of Florida, Georgia, South Carolina and North Carolina are without power this morning in the wake of Idalia. Outages across the four states on Thursday morning were around 309,000, according to PowerOutage.us, down from the 600,000 that were facing outages on Wednesday evening. However, some of the hardest-hit regions of Florida and Georgia could face outages into the weekend as utility crews work to repair broken lines and snapped power poles. On Wednesday, Duke Energy Lead Communications Manager told AccuWeather that extensive damage and flooding were impacting the company’s ability to restore power in parts of Florida, but power restoration work will begin when the weather conditions are safe for utility crews.

GERMANY - Berlin is debating reactions to the BRICS group’s increase in influence following its successful summit in Johannesburg last week. The West’s attempt – Germany’s included – to drive a wedge into the group has failed: Despite disputes over Russian President Vladimir Putin’s participation, the summit made two major advances. BRICS will admit six nations as members by January 1, 2024, including the four most powerful in the Middle East, where the West’s influence will be noticeably reduced. The bloc’s share of the global GDP will rise from around 25 to approximately 37 percent. In addition, BRICS countries will shift their trade transactions from the US dollar to national currencies, to an even greater extent than before, most likely including Saudi, Emirati and Iranian oil trade. This will gradually reduce the US currency’s global importance. German government advisors are promoting a shift from a strategy of division to one of inclusion vis-à-vis BRICS to prevent a further loss of the West’s influence.

USA - Until March the direct link between the Nuclear Risk Reduction Centres (nrrcs) of the world’s two biggest nuclear powers was alive with messages informing each other about the movement of missiles and bombers. Under New start, which came into force in 2011 and which includes caps on long-range nuclear weapons, there were 2,000-odd such notifications in 2022. No longer. The half-yearly updates on warhead numbers have stopped, too. And there have been no on-site inspections since March 2020.

USA - Xi Van Fleet escaped from communist China, but not before witnessing the horrors of life under Mao Zedong, who was responsible for the deaths of millions of people, mostly by starvation. When she looks at what the left is doing to Trump, she has a warning for America. She says this is just what China’s ‘Cultural Revolution’ looked like. She accuses the left of being Marxists and says that no one is safe because they will eventually come for everyone.

GERMANY - The archbishop of Berlin has released an official statement permitting priests under his jurisdiction to administer blessings to same-sex couples, emphasizing that his directive aligns with the intentions of Pope Francis. Quoting Pope Francis' apostolic exhortation Amoris Laetitia in a letter dated August 21, Archbishop Heiner Koch notes that "it is no longer possible to say that all who are in any so-called irregular situation are in a state of mortal sin and have lost sanctifying grace." "Pope Francis emphatically calls for pastoral discernment," Koch writes. While rejecting "the legal equality of same-sex partnerships with marriage," Francis "gives the local churches, the pastors, a lot of leeway in dealing with people in so-called 'irregular' situations."

UK - The Italians have a wonderful word, menefreghismo. Loosely translated, it means 'don't-give-a-fig-ery', a general it's-not-my- problem, you're-on-your-own-mate approach to life. It conveys a general sense of shoulder-shrugging, the kind of attitude you encounter when dealing with a petty official, a traffic warden or just your general jobsworth. Of course, they could help, if they wanted to. They could cut you some slack, make your life that little bit easier. But they sure as hell won't because, quite honestly, they don't care.

USA - Why don’t students know about evil? The first reason is that nearly all the genocides of the 20th century were committed by communists, and the Left, which runs virtually all educational institutions, has always had a soft spot for communism. If people were to recognize that communism has been the greatest source of evil in the modern age in terms of numbers murdered, number of lives destroyed, liberty stolen, and the sheer amount of human suffering inflicted (greater by those metrics than those of the Nazis before they were forcibly stopped), the Left would lose much of its appeal.

SWITZERLAND - Leading World Economic Forum advisor, Yuval Noah Harari: The totalitarian restrictions implemented in response to "Covid", including stopping all flights and locking down entire countries, will make people "more open to radical ideas about how to deal with climate change."

SOUTH AFRICA - Expanding BRICS from five to 11 members offers the bloc greater economic and political clout, but could also create tensions between members and with the West. Anil Sooklal, South Africa’s chief diplomat or “Sherpa” on BRICS, said that taking on three oil-rich countries — Iran, Saudi Arabia and the UAE — would bring in a new part of the global economy which had not been represented and would further strengthen the bloc. He dismissed concerns that admitting Iran could fundamentally alter the character of BRICS and antagonise the US and the West.

USA - Doctors in New York City are scrambling to find answers asa cheap, flesh-rotting horse tranquilizer floods the city’s illegal drug market. Xylazine, called “tranq” on the street, is mass-manufactured in China and has recently proliferated on the streets of New York as well as San Francisco and Philadelphia. The “zombie drug” causes skin lesions that look like flesh is being eaten off, sometimes down to the bone, and can slow a person’s heart and breathing until they stop, leaving users catatonic or dead.

USA - A coalition of 1,609 scientists from around the world have signed a declaration stating “there is no climate emergency” and that they “strongly oppose the harmful and unrealistic net-zero CO2 policy” being pushed across the globe. The declaration does not deny the harmful effect of greenhouse gasses, but instead challenges the hysteria brought about by the narrative of imminent doom. The declaration, put together by the Global Climate Intelligence Group (CLINTEL), was made public this month and urges that “Climate science should be less political, while climate policies should be more scientific.”

JAPAN - Japan must develop its domestic arms sector if it is to provide for its own security, a top Japanese general has said, arguing that Tokyo currently relies on American nuclear weapons for “deterrence” against regional rivals. Speaking to Nikkei Asia for an interview on Monday, General Yoshihide Yoshida, the chief of the Joint Staff for Japan’s Self-Defense Forces, outlined Tokyo’s defense needs, highlighting its close military cooperation with Washington. “We cannot maintain Japan’s security with our current capabilities,” the general said, adding: “First, we must fundamentally strengthen our defensive capabilities so that we are not underestimated. Second, we need to do what we can to sustain extended deterrence, including through strategies involving US nuclear weapons.”