USA - Thanks to the horrific drought which is absolutely devastating ranching in the Southwest, ranchers are now in “panic mode” and are selling off their cattle at an unprecedented rate. In fact, some are choosing to sell off their entire herds because they feel like they don’t have any other options. In recent days, seemingly endless lines of trailers waiting to drop off cattle for auction have gone viral all over social media. Everybody is talking about how they have never seen anything like this before, and if the drought in the Southwest persists the lines could soon get even longer. In the short-term, this is going to help to stabilize meat prices. But in the long-term the size of the US cattle herd will steadily become much smaller, and that has very serious implications for our ability to feed ourselves in 2023 and beyond.

EUROPE - Hungary has told the European Union that it must adopt “Christian roots and culture”, as well as rework the union’s “dead end” European parliament. Lawmakers in Hungary voted 130 to 50 in favour of a resolution that mandates the country’s government to push for a number of structural reforms at the EU level, including a rework of the union’s parliament, as well as to make the bloc adopt “Christian roots and culture”.

USA - Many books have been written over the centuries but some so accurately described events that would occur decades later, one would think those writers had a crystal ball that actually worked. We have heard that art imitates life, with some swearing life was truly imitating art. In reality some writers were just so in tune with the world, so observant of what was happening around them, that they were able to project a future, if the path continued in the direction they were observing it moving in.

UK - Neil Ferguson, through his institute at London’s Imperial College, can call the shots on a major percentage of the global population. He’s Mr Genius, when it comes to projecting computer models of epidemics. Fellow experts puff up his reputation. According to the Business Insider (4/25/2020), “Ferguson’s team warned Boris Johnson that the quest for ‘herd immunity’ [letting people live their lives out in the open in the UK] could cost 510,000 lives, prompting an abrupt U-turn [massive national lockdown in the UK]… His simulations have been influential in other countries as well, cited by authorities in the US, Germany, and France.” Not only cited, not only influential, but swallowed whole.

USA - Triple digit temperatures and a fickle monsoon season have combined with decades of persistent drought to put one of North America’s longest rivers in its most precarious situation yet. Islands of sand and gravel and patches of cracked mud are taking over where the Rio Grande once flowed. It’s a scene not unlike other hot, dry spots around the western US where rivers and reservoirs have been shrinking due to climate change and continued demand. Local and federal water managers on Thursday warned that more stretches of the beleaguered Rio Grande will be drying up in the coming days in the Albuquerque area leaving endangered silvery minnows stranded in whatever puddles remain. “This is almost the sole source of water in the central part of New Mexico and we’re not trying to save it just for the fish,” said Andy Dean, a federal biologist. “It’s our job as the Fish and Wildlife Service to prevent the extinction of this animal, but this water is also for everybody in the valley. We’re trying to save it for everybody and if the fish is that piece that helps us do that, then that’s what we have to use.”

JAPAN - Dozens of people were urged to evacuate their homes after a fiery volcanic eruption in southern Japan on Sunday as the national weather agency issued its top-level alert for the mountain. Television footage showed lava and dark plumes of ash exploding from Sakurajima in Kagoshima, which erupted just after 8 pm (11:00 GMT). The volcano frequently spits out smoke and ash, and is a major tourist attraction. Sunday's blast propelled large cinders about 2.5 kilometres (1.5 miles) from the crater, the Japan Meteorological Agency said in a statement. The agency raised its alert for Sakurajima to level five, the top level, which urges evacuations. Before the eruption it was at level three, which bans entry to the mountain.

CHINA - China’s National Energy Administration (NEA) said Thursday it approved a coal mine project worth 3.1 billion yuan ($458 million) in the country’s Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region, Reuters reported. “The project has annual production capacity of 4 million tonnes a year, with phase one at 1.2 million tonnes and phase two at 2.8 million tonnes [sic],” Reuters quoted the NEA as saying on July 21. The administration said that one of its goals in approving a new mining site in Zhungeer was to help “ensure stable energy supply.” China’s state electric grid is primarily fueled by coal power.

USA - Water police comb through Southern California neighborhoods, searching for illegal lawn irrigation or residents washing their vehicles. Those disobeying the new water restrictions will be issued a warning, and repeat offenders will be slapped with hundreds of dollars in fines. Los Angeles Department of Water and Power (LADWP) has a team of water conservationist police patrolling city streets and sidewalks for water wasters. The 'water cops' also investigate hundreds of complaints by neighbors (or so-called 'Karens') who report one another about water wasting. AFP spoke with one water specialist, Damon Ayala, who rides around Los Angeles, writing down addresses of homes where he finds evidence of infringement of the strictest ever conservation rules that went into effect early last month.

GERMANY - Germany should contribute towards the costs of France's nuclear arsenal as the threat of nuclear war with Russia looms over Europe, German political veteran Wolfgang Schäuble said in an interview published on Saturday. "Now that Putin's accomplices are threatening a nuclear strike every day, one thing is clear to me: we need nuclear deterrence at the European level as well," Schäuble, a former finance minister who has served as a member of the German parliament for five decades, told the Welt am Sonntag newspaper. France has such weapons, he said, adding: "In our own interest, we Germans must make a financial contribution to the French nuclear force in return for a joint nuclear deterrent." Russia's invasion of Ukraine has triggered the most serious crisis in relations between Moscow and the West since the 1962 Cuban Missile Crisis, when many people feared the world was on the brink of nuclear war. France - one of three NATO members with nuclear weapons, alongside the United States and Britain - has around 300 nuclear warheads in its arsenal, according to the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI).

JAPAN - Japan’s central government plans to reactivate up to nine nuclear power plants in the next few months to support an expected spike in electricity demand during the upcoming winter season, Japan’s Asahi Shimbun newspaper reported on Friday. “We are aiming to put as many nuclear reactors as possible online,” Japanese Prime Minister Kishida Fumio told reporters at a July 14 press conference. “We will have up to nine reactors operating this winter to secure enough sources of energy to cover about 10 percent of Japan’s overall power consumption.”

UKRAINE - Russian rockets which struck Ukrainian port city Odesa in an 'outrageous' attack just hours after a landmark food supply deal hit a grain facility, Kyiv stated. A Ukrainian military spokesman said Kalibr cruise missiles targeted a grain processing plant this morning - but claimed they 'did not cause significant damage'. Exports will continue as planned, they added. The brutal airstrikes poured cold water on the 'landmark' deal to unblock crucial grain exports stuck at three ports including Odesa, signed yesterday in Istanbul. President Zelensky wrote via Telegram: 'This proves only one thing: no matter what Russia says and promises, it will find ways not to implement it.' Russia promised Turkey it had 'nothing to do' with the airstrike, the country's defence minister said.

UK - Rishi Sunak and Liz Truss will go head-to-head to become the next leader of the Conservative Party - and prime minister of the UK - after Penny Mordaunt became the latest candidate to be knocked out of the contest. The remaining two candidates will face a summer of campaigning and hustings before a vote by the wider party membership, with a winner set to be announced on 5 September.

UK - Boris Johnson should be reinstated as Prime Minister and Conservative Party leader, a new poll of Express.co.uk readers has found. More than 7,600 Tory members have signed a petition calling for a vote on whether Mr Johnson’s resignation should be accepted. Lord Cruddas said: “The ousting of Boris Johnson as Prime Minister by a minority of MPs is deeply anti-democratic. It defies the will of the country and the Conservative Party members who elected him. “It amounts to a coup. I am ashamed that this can happen in Britain, the birthplace of modern democracy. If that's what politics has become, we're living in a nation I can barely recognise any longer.”

USA - According to a recent Wall Street Journal report, Amazon has filed a lawsuit against administrators of more than 10,000 distinct Facebook groups that were allegedly “used to coordinate fake reviews of Amazon products.” According to Amazon, the groups offer people free goods or cash in exchange for product reviews, which are then utilized to raise product ratings in the hopes that more merchandise would be sold. In addition to the United States, this practice is also prevalent in the United Kingdom, Germany, France, Italy, Spain, and Japan. Dharmesh Mehta, a vice president at Amazon, described the company’s approach of boosting reviews as “proactive legal action targeting bad actors.” Phony reviews are a problem that both Amazon and Google have had to deal with in recent years, according to the report, and they even prompted an investigation by the UK antitrust regulator into whether the corporations were doing enough to halt the fake reviews.

USA - FORTY Million in US West Without Water in 2023. Many are now aware of and justifiably concerned about Lake Mead soon becoming what is known as a “dead pool”. When this milestone is reached, the ramifications for tens of millions of Americans is beyond grave. What is not being discussed is the Lake Mead 3rd intake drain that was designed to drain every last drop from this diminishing and dying largest reservoir in the US. The remaining water will keep Las Vegas Nevada partying till the last possible moment.