GERMANY - The majority of respondents believe the nation’s officials are unable to fulfill their duties, a new survey shows. Trust in the state has fallen to record lows in Germany and most of the population thinks their officials are simply incapable of doing their job, a new survey commissioned by the nation’s biggest public sector employee union shows. The number of people who believe that the state is ‘overwhelmed’ with the tasks it is facing has reached 69%, the poll (conducted by the Forsa Institute for Social Research and Statistical Analysis) indicates. The number of people who still trust the abilities of their public officials has fallen by two percentage points, in comparison to the previous year, and amounted to just 27%. In 2020, when Germany was facing the first wave of the Covid-19 pandemic, only 40% of its citizens believed that the state was failing to fulfill its duties. Another poll – commissioned by Germany’s ARD public broadcaster in early August – shows that public approval of the German government fell to just 21%, down from 60% in 2020.

GERMANY - Berlin previously promised to meet the bloc’s 2% target over a five-year period. Germany has quietly dropped a plan to make NATO’s military spending targets legally binding, a government source told Reuters on Wednesday. The budget financing law passed by Chancellor Olaf Scholz’s cabinet on Wednesday was missing a provision that would have made the bloc’s defense spending target of 2% of GDP a legal requirement, according to the source. According to Moscow, Ukraine has lost nearly 5,000 pieces of heavy weaponry and over 43,000 soldiers since launching its long-awaited counteroffensive in June, with no significant change in the front lines to show for it. Russia has repeatedly warned that continued arms supplies to Ukraine will only extend the conflict and prolong human suffering.

GERMANY - German Chancellor Olaf Scholz has welcomed the recent summit on Ukraine hosted by Saudi Arabia. German Chancellor Olaf Scholz has called for a greater diplomatic effort to end the ongoing conflict between Moscow and Kiev, saying that the recent summit on Ukraine in Jeddah was a “very special” event. Scholz made the remarks in his major annual summer interview with German state broadcaster ZDF, which aired on Sunday. The chancellor urged for further diplomatic efforts, stating diplomacy can be useful to “press” Russia.

USA - You’ve probably been following in the news all the excited talk about Unidentified Flying Objects (UFOs), also called Unidentified Anomalous Phenomena (UAPs). Recently, former military intelligence officer-turned-whistleblower, David Grusch, appeared before the House Oversight Committee’s National Security Subcommittee claiming the Executive branch agencies have been withholding real spacecraft and alien remains for decades. Well, I’ll say this, if we don’t know what something is, it is unidentified. If it’s in the air, then it’s flying. And, if its size is substantial, then it’s an object. So there you go — there are UFOs! But, are they extraterrestrial? I highly doubt it.

CHINA - Divisions between Beijing and New Delhi are hindering the development of a common currency to rival the dollar, Jim O’Neill has said. The US dollar would become “a lot more vulnerable” if BRICS members settled their rivalries and brought more countries into the fold, former Goldman Sachs economist and creator of the BRICS acronym Jim O’Neill told the Financial Times on Monday. With the group’s 15th summit just a week away, the BRICS bloc – an informal economic club comprising Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa – is currently fielding applications from 23 countries across the non-Western world, while its development bank may soon welcome Saudi Arabia – a close partner of the US – as a member. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said earlier this month that while “in the short term, this is hardly feasible, the use of national currencies is already a reality that is growing on a global scale.”

RUSSIA - All systems aboard the Luna-25 automatic interplanetary station are working normally, Russia’s space agency has reported. Russia’s space agency Roscosmos has reported that the Luna-25 automatic station has reached the satellite orbit of the Moon and is preparing to make a historic landing attempt on the lunar surface. The agency noted that the mission marks the first time in Russia’s modern history that an automatic station has been sent to the moon. As part of this mission, Roscosmos said it intends to work on developing and testing soft landing technology, analyze the lunar soil, and conduct long-term scientific research, including on the upper layer of regolith of the Moon’s south pole, as well as the lunar exosphere.

RUSSIA - Luna-25 aims to land in an area believed to have water deposits – a prerequisite for permanent human settlement. New Space Race: What does Russia seek to achieve with its historic Moon mission and where does it stand compared to rivals? The reason that Russia is attempting to land on the Moon’s less hospitable south pole rather than the equatorial region is no coincidence. Scientists believe that there are water ice deposits in the area where the Russian mission is expected to touch down. Moreover, the south pole is constantly lit by the Sun, meaning that solar panels can be placed there to generate energy for future missions. Developing their own lunar programs in parallel are the US, China, and India.

FAR EAST - Andy Schectman, President and Owner of Miles Franklin, believes that a common settlement currency for the BRICS (Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa) is an unavoidable outcome. In a recent interview with Michelle Makori, Lead Anchor and Editor-in-Chief at Kitco News, Schectman expressed his conviction that the BRICS will introduce a currency backed by a tangible asset. “While the timing of the currency’s launch remains uncertain, the increasing alliances within the BRICS group indicate that it is on the horizon,” Schectman stated. He emphasized that the sheer size of the population represented by the BRICS alliance makes the introduction of a common currency a significant event, regardless of the specific timeline. He predicts that eventually, 85% of the global population will abandon the greenback.

USA - The United States is approaching disaster with its increasing national debt, according to well-known author Robert Kiyosaki. Kiyosaki recalled that when former President Richard Nixon took the dollar off the gold standard in 1971 it meant the dollar became fake money, or fiat currency. He added that throughout history, no fiat currency has ever survived, and it has brought down the Chinese Empire, the Roman Empire and the Greek Empire. The entrepreneur, educator and investor said since the dollar was taken off the gold standard people have seen changes around the world. He also took note that whenever the government gets into trouble, they would just start printing more money.

NORTH KOREA - The world is just a step away from nuclear conflict, North Korean Defense Minister General Kang Sun-nam said in a statement made public on Tuesday and presented at the XI Moscow International Security Conference. The official blamed Washington’s desire for a regime change in Pyongyang for ratcheting up tensions. He also accused the US of increasing its military presence in the region by deploying nuclear-capable aircraft and a submarine to the area. “Now, the question is not if a nuclear war breaks out on the Korean Peninsula, but who and when it starts,” Kang warned. In this year alone, the US sent “massive strategic arms” to the region, including a nuclear-capable submarine, an aircraft carrier group, and a nuclear-capable bomber, he added.

UK - Parents need to ‘get a grip’ and stop their children joining dangerous TikTok crazes, a policing leader said yesterday. Donna Jones, the new chairman of the Association of Police and Crime Commissioners (APCC), issued a stern warning as she revealed teenagers in Southampton took paracetamol over the weekend in a social media challenge to see who could stay in hospital the longest. It comes just days after flash-mob looting in London’s Oxford Street, which was prompted by videos and screenshots trending on social media encouraging youngsters to rob J D Sports and other stores. Ms Jones says parents must speak to their children as she blasted video-hosting service TikTok and other sites for not ‘preventing these challenges which are facilitating criminal activity’. She wants youngsters to be fined by magistrates’ courts if they join looters, so parents realise there is a cost to their behaviour.

UK - Shocking video has shown police wielding batons clashing with dozens of youths in London's Oxford Street this afternoon after chaos erupted when a social media-fuelled campaign to 'rob JD Sports' and shoplift went viral. Nine people have been arrested by the Metropolitan Police on suspicion of offences including assaulting a police officer, going equipped to steal and breaching a dispersal order at the shopping hotspot today. Cops mounted on horseback are expected to be among those patrolling the streets to tackle any potential disorder. The Met Police said on Twitter: 'We are aware of online speculation about opportunities to commit crime around Oxford Street. There will be a significant number of our officers in the area over the next 24 hours. Anyone committing a crime can expect to be dealt with robustly.' The Met Police also posted a video on TikTok warning people officers 'will not tolerate' anti-social behaviour.

USA - The middle class in the US has been steadily shrinking for decades, but in recent years our leaders have greatly accelerated that process. In 2020, 2021 and 2022 they absolutely flooded the system with new money, and almost all of that new money went into the pockets of the wealthy. The gap between the wealthy and the rest of us is now larger than ever, and that isn’t a good thing for our society. Even if you are still making as much money as you did a few years ago, you have lost a lot of ground financially, because the cost of living has been rapidly eating away at our standard of living.

FINLAND - Sharing the wrong Bible verse could get you two years jail time in Finland. She was accused of a hate crime for posting a Scripture along with her views on marriage and sexuality. After a three year battle, a court in Finland upheld the right to free speech in March and dropped all charges. But now, Päivi Räsänen, former Minister of the Interior, is on trial again. The reason she spoke up in the first place might surprise you. Her own church jumped on the Pride bandwagon at the time, and she was concerned because they were going against the Bible they profess to believe in. This has also been a problem in too many American churches. Conforming to the world comes to mind. It has been a four-year battle for her. This is what the God-hating left does here in the US as well. They drag you into court and try wearing you down. The word “bullying” comes to mind.

USA - In order for a civilized society to function, most people have to willingly follow the rules of that society. If that happens, law enforcement authorities can deal with the few that choose to be lawless. For generations, that is how things worked in America. There was a high standard of morality among the general population, and so the police were able to successfully handle the few bad apples that insisted on breaking the law. But now everything has changed. As a result of decades of extreme moral decay, lawlessness is rampant and there are vast multitudes of young people that openly flaunt the rules of our society. In fact, there are already some areas of the country that are literally on the verge of being ungovernable.