USA - “Forever chemicals” — which seep into the environment and can lead to adverse health outcomes — were recently found to be in 45% of US tap water, even as federal officials try to limit a set of chemicals once used for everything from non-stick pans to firefighting foam. “Forever chemicals” — or PFAS, which stands for per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances — are chemicals that have been used in everyday products since the 1940s and take a long time to break down due to their strong carbon-fluorine bonds, making it easy for the chemicals to linger in the environment and contaminate drinking water.

UK - The Church of England (CoE) and the greater Anglican community is facing a dilemma: just how much should they embrace gay relationships? Should they ‘evolve’ with the times, or hold on to centuries of doctrine? Reuters reported: “The Church of England’s governing body will deliberate on how priests could carry out blessings for same-sex couples when it gathers in the cathedral city of York for a five-day meeting on Friday. The assembly of bishops, clergy and laity – called the General Synod – is also due to discuss on Saturday how to protect vicars who might choose not to pray over the union of same-sex couples.”

UK - Feminist campaigner Maya Forstater has hit out at CPS guidelines stating parents could be charged with domestic abuse for refusing to pay for their child's transgender treatment or not using their preferred pronoun. Updated legal guidance for prosecutors that was quietly published by the Crown Prosecution service last year includes a list of examples of abuse of 'trans and non-binary victims'. One is 'withholding money for transitioning', while another is 'refusing to use their preferred name or pronoun.' A third adds: 'Body shaming or criticising the victim for not being 'a real man/woman' if they have not undergone reassignment surgery.' The guidance could conceivably apply to wives 'abusing' their transgender husbands or vice versa, or even children referring to their parents as 'mum' or 'dad' if they have transitioned.

EUROPE - A new study commissioned by the European Federation for Transport and Environment revealed that toxic emissions of sulfur oxides from 63 cruise ships belonging to Carnival Corporation were 43% higher than all the combustion engine vehicles in Europe. This stunning statistic comes as EU leaders have decided to ban small combustion engines for cars by 2035. But what about 'green' cruise ships? For cruise ship operators to achieve carbon-neutral status, this might take decades.

USA - The relative peace and tranquility that we had been enjoying for several months has been shattered. All of a sudden, chaos is erupting all over the globe. Rioters are setting fires in cities all over France, the IDF just conducted the largest military operation in the West Bank since 2002, and the Russians and the Ukrainians are both accusing one another of wanting to attack the Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant.

ROMANIA - Romania’s Prime Minister Marcel Ciolacu urged German Chancellor Olaf Scholz on Tuesday to further boost NATO’s eastern flank by sending over German troops to his country “soon” and “permanently.” “I hope that soon we will have German soldiers permanently on the territory of Romania,” Ciolacu said, referring to a German announcement last week to permanently send 4,000 troops to Lithuania, while speaking at a joint press conference following a meeting between the two leaders in Berlin.NATO stationed troops from countries including France in Romania, which has a direct border with Ukraine. The US has said that it will keep its troops in Romania until at least this fall. Speaking at a joint press conference following a meeting in Berlin, both leaders expressed pessimism about the possibility of the war in Ukraine ending soon

FRANCE - French police should be able to spy on suspects by remotely activating the camera, microphone and GPS of their phones and other devices, lawmakers agreed late Wednesday. Part of a wider justice reform bill, the spying provision has been attacked by the left and rights defenders as an authoritarian snoopers' charter, though Justice Minister Eric Dupond-Moretti insists it would affect only 'dozens of cases a year'. Covering laptops, cars and other connected objects as well as phones, the measure would allow geolocation of suspects in crimes punishable by at least five years' jail. Devices could also be remotely activated to record sound and images of people suspected of terror offenses, as well as delinquency and organised crime.

USA - An update to Google's privacy policy suggests that the entire public internet is fair game for its AI projects. Google updated its privacy policy over the weekend, explicitly saying the company reserves the right to scrape just about everything you post online to build its AI tools. If Google can read your words, assume they belong to the company now, and expect that they’re nesting somewhere in the bowels of a chatbot. “Google uses information to improve our services and to develop new products, features and technologies that benefit our users and the public,” the new Google policy says. “For example, we use publicly available information to help train Google’s AI models and build products and features like Google Translate, Bard, and Cloud AI capabilities.”

FRANCE - In response to the unrest involving kids averaging 17 years of age, sparked by the shooting death of a teen of the same age who refused to obey orders at a traffic stop, French President Emmanuel Macron has been looking for ways to restore order. Does anyone else know of another country – other than the “land of the child-king”, as my French-Canadian friends call France – where kids are so badly behaved that the president has to threaten parents with penalties for neglecting their basic parental responsibilities to the point that private infrastructure gets trashed on a nightly basis? Adults speaking up are typically told by the parents that kids have every right to express themselves.

CHINA - Although the United States and China are now talking more, in practice little has actually changed in the strategic picture of relations between the two powers. In anticipation of Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen’s visit to the country, Beijing announced a series of export controls on critical materials required for the production of semiconductors, which is interpreted as retaliation against the US’ growing export controls targeting the development of its own industry. This only goes to underline the realism of how short-sighted America’s attempts to try and crush China’s semiconductor rise are. When a nation possesses critical commodities or materials, it is near impossible to isolate it from global markets when the demand for those goods is critical. This is why the West was never able to similarly cut Russia out of global energy and commodity markets.

VATICAN - The Francis papacy and the synod process is opening up unexpected new paths in the search for Christian unity. In recent years, the movement towards Christian unity, which had quickened after the Second Vatican Council, seemed to have become mired in a quagmire of insurmountable difficulties. The synodal process launched by Pope Francis has changed all that. The extraordinary synodal journey is not one that the Catholic Church is embarking on alone. The recently published Instrumentum Laboris – working document – for the forthcoming October assembly in Rome devotes a whole section to Christian unity and how the Catholic Church can learn from other traditions.

GERMANY - In a more dangerous and competitive world, Germany’s Zeitenwende is the right decision. Strong German defense, with a more robust and ready Bundeswehr at its core, is key for lasting peace and security — for Germany, Europe, and NATO. Written by Jens Stoltenberg, Secretary General of NATO.

UK - And you think it will not happen here to you? Wake up. The gloves are off, and bank-government collusion is now in plain sight for all to see. First we had the abrupt, arbitrary and capricious weaponization of the Canadian banking system by the WEF-trained young leaders Justin Trudeau and his (former journalist) finance minister Chrystia Freeland. And now we have the British banks directly interfering with British politician and political commentator Nigel Farage (well known as a leader of the Brexit movement). Nigel is being completely frozen out of his accounts and any ability to engage in banking activities in the UK.

USA - In the name of “protecting future generations from potentially devastating consequences,” a bipartisan group of US lawmakers on Wednesday introduced legislation meant to prevent artificial intelligence from launching nuclear weapons without meaningful human control.

FRANCE - 89% of Frenchmen condemn the violence committed against security forces, leaving left-wing riot apologists in the tiny minority. A man was killed by a flash-bang grenade in Marseille. The GoFundMe for the police officer involved in the deadly shooting of Nahel M. reached €1.6 million. The Macron government proposed cracking down on free speech instead of the rioters. The situation in France calmed Tuesday night, on the 8th night of unrest since the officer-involved death of 17-year-old driver Nahel, with only 16 arrests, including 7 in the Paris region. There were 116 fires on public roads, 78 vehicles burned and 8 buildings set on fire. 1,243 people have been indicted since June 30. Bus and tram service was restored, which had been suspended since Friday. Police arrested three men with 300 kilos of fireworks in Paris. There have been 1,000 buildings burnt, 5,600 vehicles destroyed, and 3,300 arrests since last week in France.