USA - Analysts at Yale looking at “private Russian language and unconventional data sources” say imports have “collapsed” and domestic production “has come to a complete standstill”. Russia has lost companies representing around two-fifths of its GDP amid an exodus of Western businesses, they claim, undoing about three decades of foreign investment. The pressures are tipping Mr Putin into “unsustainable, dramatic” fiscal and monetary interventions, the report says, claiming “Kremlin finances are in much, much more dire straits than conventionally understood”. The report, from Yale’s Chief Executive Leadership Institute, describes itself as “one of the first comprehensive economic analyses” of how Russia’s economy is faring five months on from the invasion of Ukraine. “The findings of our comprehensive economic analysis of Russia are powerful and indisputable: not only have sanctions and the business retreat worked, they have thoroughly crippled the Russian economy at every level,” they said.

USA - A TIKTOK account dedicated to asking artificial intelligence disturbing questions revealed what the DALL-E AI thinks the last selfie on Earth would look like. Aptly named "Robot Overloards" the TikTok account promises "daily disturbing AI-generated images". The account asked the DALL-E mini AI image generator to show what "the last selfie ever taken" will look like. Several images were produced and they're not for the faint-hearted. Each AI-generated image shows apocalyptic scenes. They all include mutilated humans holding phones as chaos ensues around them. In June 2022, the DALL-E mini image generator started going viral after the internet discovered its ability to create funny and disturbing images. Created in 2021, DALL-E is known as a transformer language model that can turn almost any idea into images.

CHINA – China is "likely to respond militarily" if Nancy Pelosi goes ahead with her plan to visit Taiwan, a foreign policy analyst has predicted, warning relations with the US are now "toxic". Bonnie Glaser, director of the Asia Program at the German Marshall Fund of the United States, issued her sobering remarks amid simmering tensions over Speaker of the US House of Representatives Ms Pelosi’s proposed trip. Ms Pelosi has been tight-lipped about details - but a member of the House foreign affairs committee today said she has invited other senior elected US officials to join her, apparently confirming her plans to go. Taiwan is a fully functioning democracy with its own President, Tsai Ing-wen - but China regards the island, located just 100 miles off the mainland, as part of its territory. Ms Glaser said: "The relationship is in such a toxic state. Mutual distrust is really at an all-time high. I think people don't realise how dangerous this particular moment is.”

USA - The military industrial complex is going to absolutely love it when war with China erupts. George Orwell once said that “war against a foreign country only happens when the moneyed classes think they are going to profit from it”, and he was right on target. War is enormously profitable, but once the conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan ended the military industrial complex needed a new cash cow. So now we have the war in Ukraine, and we are being told that it could go on for years. Life is good again for the big arms manufacturers, but it could be even better. A war with China would cause military spending to soar to unprecedented heights that we have never seen before, and we are getting closer to such a conflict with each passing day.

CHINA - The Chinese Defense Ministry ratcheted up its belligerent rhetoric on Tuesday by threatening to aim “new missiles” at American planes and aircraft carriers near Taiwan if House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (Democrat for California) proceeds with her planned visit to the island next month. The state-run Global Times quoted the Chinese Defense Ministry vowing to take “strong measures” to “thwart any external interference” or “Taiwan independence separatist steps,” then warned the People’s Liberation Army stands ready to use all that advanced technology it stole from the Western world over the past few decades. Approvingly quoting threats to use military force from its former editor Hu Xijin, the Global Times crowed that Pelosi might just give Beijing the excuse it needs to invade Taiwanese airspace.

USA - The World Health Organization published recommendations regarding the MonkeyPox “Global Emergency” today, and in doing so, they revealed that this “virus” actually only risks a very small portion of the world’s population: men having sex with other men. The World Health Organization on Wednesday recommended that gay and bisexual men cut back on the number of sexual partners to reduce the spread of monkeypox, after the WHO’s monkeypox expert, Rosamund Lewis, noted that men who have sex with men are the group with the highest risk of infection right now, CNBC reports. Around 99% of cases are among men, while 95% of those are men who have sex with men, Lewis added.

UK - A group of concerned parents disrupted a performance of Drag Queen Story Hour in Britain on Tuesday, accusing the touring troupe of trying to “groom” young children. The first instalment of a nation-wide Drag Queen Story Hour tour of nearly 70 performances across the UK was disrupted by a group of angered parent protesters at a library in Reading, England. The show was hosted by Sab Samuel, an autistic 27-year-old man, who performs in heavy drag as ‘Aida H Dee’. According to its website, Drag Queen Story Hour UK says that it provides “fun and interactive kids shows with amazing and talented drag performers!” “Drag Queen Story Hour UK wants to show the world that being different is not a bad thing, and by providing imaginative role models for children to look up to, we can change the world book by book!” Confronting Samuel on Tuesday, one mother said: “You’re probably teaching kids that there’s 100 genders, there’s only two sexes, no man can be a woman. We’re here to protect children.”

USA - Those who think biological sex is an arbitrary social construct should “try milking bulls,” Charles Hurt, Fox News contributor, Washington Times opinion editor, and Breitbart News columnist, said on Wednesday’s edition of SiriusXM’s Breitbart News Daily with host Alex Marlow. Marlow and Hurt discussed the Democratic Party’s and broader left’s rejection of sexual dimorphism in the context of leftist ideological targeting of children and capture of many educational institutions. “If you think there are 12 genders and you’re trying to run a dairy operation, your dairy is not going to last,” Hurt remarked. “Your dairy is going to go under in one week. If you try milking bulls, you’re done. It’s over with. Or if you try to try to do anything that is connected to the science… Of course, growing food is all about science.” He added, “If you actually refuse to accept science and then you get into a business where you’re trying to do science, and you refuse to accept it, you’re going to fail.” Hurt linked the left’s ideological rejection of sexual duality with its push of “transgender” ideology upon children. “This is their great intent,” he stated. “This has been the intent of the left-wing in this country from the beginning."

GERMANY - The German government plans to reduce incentive payments for buyers of electric cars and end incentives for buying plug-in hybrids at the end of this year. The government had announced shortly after taking office in December that, starting in 2023, it would only provide payments for electric vehicles that “demonstrably have a positive climate-protection effect.” It unveiled details of the new system late Tuesday. At present, buyers of electric-only cars are eligible for incentives of up to 6,000 euros ($6,100) and people who buy plug-in hybrids can get up to 4,500 euros. The economy and climate ministry said the number of electric cars on the road is rising fast, with the total expected to near 2 million this year. They “are becoming ever more popular and will need no state subsidies in the foreseeable future,” minister Robert Habeck said in a statement.

USA - The United States has become “a beggar nation,” former President Donald Trump said during a speech at the America First Policy Institute summit on Tuesday. Marking his first appearance in Washington since he left office in 2021, Trump blasted the Democrats and the Biden administration for having brought the US “to its knees.”

USA - There are some things that I believe to be true about the anarchy that purports to be US foreign policy. First, and most important, I do not believe that any voter cast a ballot for Joe Biden because he or she wanted him to relentlessly pursue a needless conflict with Russia that could easily escalate into a nuclear war with unimaginable consequences for all parties. Biden has recently declared that the US will support Ukraine “until we win” and, as there are already tens of billions of dollars of weapons going to Ukraine plus American “advisers” on the ground, it constitutes a scenario in which American and Russian soldiers will soon likely be shooting at each other. The President of Serbia and columnists like Pat Buchanan and Tulsi Gabbard believe that we are already de facto in World War 3 and one has to wonder how the White House is getting away with ignoring the War Powers mandates in the US Constitution.

GERMANY - Berlin is considering an intensification of its confrontational policy toward the People's Republic of China. This is apparent in a strategy paper recently presented by the CDU-affiliated Konrad Adenauer Foundation. The proposals in the paper include an intensified interference in the domestic affairs of China, “public campaigns,” accusing Beijing of “disinformation and propaganda,” as well as attempts in Africa to alienate China, as a cooperation partner. At the same time, the “resilience” of the domestic population must be strengthened – for example, with “a strategic media and information policy in Germany and the EU.” To weaken the People’s Republic’s position in the global economy, the CDU’s foundation suggests that the globally anchored WTO be replaced by a new alliance merging the G7 with the OECD (“WTO of the West”). The foundation points out, however, that Chinese resistance and massive damage to German enterprises are to be expected – at a time when Germany’s economy is already beginning to suffer heavily under the war of sanctions against Russia.

USA - The US is working “furiously” behind the scenes to keep the European Union united against Moscow amid a drop in supply of Russian gas to the bloc, CNN reported Wednesday, citing American officials. There’s panic on both sides of the Atlantic over the possibility of Europe experiencing severe gas shortages this winter, unnamed officials told the broadcaster. “This was our biggest fear,” one of them confessed, warning that the impact of a crisis in Europe could boomerang to the US, leading to a further spike in gas and electricity prices for American customers. The whole situation is also going to become a major test of European resilience and unity against Russia, he added.

USA - Following their second emergency meeting on monkeypox in less than a month, WHO Director-General Thedros Adhanom told the press: “In short, we have an outbreak that has spread around the world rapidly through new modes of transmission about which we understand too little and which meets the criteria in the international health regulations… For all of these reasons I have decided that the global monkeypox outbreak represents a global health emergency of international concern.”

USA - The Biden administration has estimated that it may need almost $7 billion from Congress to respond to the spread of monkeypox, given “the scope and urgency of the current situation,” the Washington Post reported on Tuesday, citing a White House memo. The figure was specified in a document addressed to US President Joe Biden and obtained by the outlet. The memo, however, was not a formal funding request addressed to Congress, but rather an option that Washington may choose to tackle the monkeypox outbreak.