The world is getting ever more reliant on rare earth metals as it eyes a more environmentally friendly future. And this is a problem, because we don’t have enough of them and they are massively polluting to process. You may not be aware of the significance of rare-earth metals (or rare-earth elements) but you should be. They are a specific set of 17 extremely similar heavy metals, and are integral to modern electric and electronic technology, specifically renewable energy, computers, lasers, glass, magnets and various industrial processes. But they do not come without problems. Their extraction, processing and refining are having major geo-political repercussions, and there is also their slow depletion, combined with careless, wasteful disposal (in our era of planned obsolescence) to consider. Nevertheless, our usage of rare-earth metals continues to rise, even as their sourcing grows more dubious, creating an environmental catastrophe of horrific proportions.

USA - Now that we’re more than a year into the pandemic, it’s crystal clear that the panic that ensued was unnecessary and the draconian measures put into place for public health were unwarranted and harmful. John Tierney, a contributing science columnist for The New York Times, looked back over the pandemic, providing a timeline of the media-induced viral panic that led to censorship and suppression of scientific research on an unprecedented scale. In his article for City Journal, he explained that the “moral panic that swept the nation’s guiding institutions” during the pandemic was far more catastrophic than the viral pandemic itself.

IRAN - Western powers continue to blame Iran for stalled negotiations to revive the nuclear deal, known as the JCPOA. In comments reported by Germany’s Der Spiegel on Friday, German Foreign Minister Heiko Maas said Iran was “delaying” the JCPOA talks that have been held in Vienna. “I am seeing with growing unease that Iran is delaying the resumption of the Vienna nuclear talks on the one hand, and on the other hand it is simultaneously moving further and further away from core elements of the agreement,” Maas said. Throughout the years, Iran has been clear that it can reverse its nuclear activity to the limits set by the JCPOA if the US lifts sanctions. But since the Biden administration has refused to lift all Trump-era sanctions, the process to revive the deal has been dragged out.

USA - The temperature reality is that there is no trend from 1911-2020 in very hot (ie 99F+) days in the Pacific Northwest. That’s according to Cliff Mass, a professor of atmospheric sciences at the University of Washington and no one’s idea of a “climate denier.” It’s out-of-control wildfire season again, which is being fueled by ongoing drought. Climate alarmists, of course, expect the public to believe that the drought is caused by global warming. But the natural history of the West over the past 1,100 years shows that megadroughts lasting as long as 200 years are the norm rather than the exception.

USA - It is the beginning of August, and a day of reckoning has finally arrived for renters all over the nation. Since last September, a moratorium that was issued by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has been protecting millions of renters that have been unable or unwilling to make their monthly rent payments. But now that moratorium is officially over, and all of that back rent is due. For some renters, that will mean that nearly a full year of rent will need to be paid. The millions of Americans that cannot or will not pay what is owed can now be legally evicted. This is a major national disaster that has been building up for many months, and now it is finally here. Welcome to the biggest eviction horror show in American history.

USA - Millions face imminent homelessness, after the Democrats left Washington for the recess without extending an eviction moratorium set to expire on Saturday. America’s largest corporate landlords are about to make a killing. An 11-month eviction moratorium that prevented tens of millions of Americans from losing their homes during the coronavirus-induced economic shutdown expires on July 31, after Congress left Washington for recess without passing a bill to extend it. The moratorium was put in place by the Trump administration last year and extended by the Biden administration in June, but a Supreme Court ruling that same month stated that a further extension would require “clear and specific congressional authorization.” President Biden this week asked his allies in Congress to pass a bill extending the eviction ban, and House Democrats had enough votes to do so, but nevertheless did not.

USA - The YouGov survey for George Washington University found that 47% of Republicans surveyed agreed with the statement there will be a time coming when 'patriotic Americans have to take the law into their own hands.' Just 9% of Democrats agreed with that same conclusion, in a shocking difference of opinion on partisan political influence on laws in the United States. More than half of Republicans - 55% - also supported the use of force to 'preserve the traditional American way of life'. Just 15% of Democrats supported the use of force to preserve the nation's values.

USA - Google's researchers aren't happy that users are migrating to platforms that don't censor "misinformation." As Big Tech platforms have increased their censorship of so-called “hate speech” and “COVID-19 misinformation,” platforms such as free speech social network Gab and the messaging app Telegram have seen a surge in new users. Now, a new post from Google’s Jigsaw unit, which “explores threats to open societies and builds technology that inspires scalable solutions”, is recommending that users of these platforms should be surveilled across platforms in real-time, so that they can be more easily be blocked from sharing links to “harmful content.” It suggests “a dynamic, internet-wide approach is necessary” to flag and censor content across multiple platforms.

BELARUS - Belarus’ authoritarian president said Friday he’s prepared to invite Russian troops into the country if such a move is necessary to ensure the security of both Belarus and Russia. But, President Alexander Lukashenko said, at the moment “there is absolutely no need” to do that. In remarks carried by the state-run Belta news agency, Lukashenko stressed that he had dealt with last year’s anti-government protests without involving other countries’ armed forces, but added that he would not hesitate to bring in Russian troops if necessary. Belarus is able to quickly deploy 500,000 of its own personnel, but “if it is not enough, all Russian armed forces will be brought in,” Lukashenko said, according to Belta. “If it is necessary, we won’t hesitate.”

USA - Ramona Bessinger is the Providence, Rhode Island, middle school teacher who blew the whistle on July 13, 2021, in a post at Legal Insurrection on pernicious and destructive implementation of a new race-oriented curriculum, I’m A Middle School Teacher And See How Critical Race Curriculum Is Creating Racial Hostility In School: This past 2020/21 school year was a sad and worrisome turning point for me as an educator. Providence K-8 teachers were introduced to one of the most racially divisive, hateful, and in large part, historically inaccurate curriculums I have ever seen in my teaching career.

USA - In a June Board of Trustee report, the American Medical Association resolved to lobby the US government to remove the sex of a child from their birth certificate. The sex of a child at birth is determined by genetic make-up, and those genes are expressed in a variety of ways both immediately and over the course of a person’s life, obviously. Genitalia, hormones, bone structure, muscle density, average height and weight, amount of body hair, reproduction, and many many other facets of human biology, brain chemistry, and lifetime are determined or affected by one’s gender. This is both medical and scientific fact. Nevertheless, the American Medical Association thinks that’s bad and mean to say and so they would rather just pretend those things aren’t so, because that’s a very medical and scientific thing to do.

UK - The UK must stand up to a growing 'precedent' of continued 'censorship' and cancel culture or risk losing all of its freedoms to those who decide what is 'offensive', according to GB News' Andrew Doyle. Speaking on his show Free Speech Nation, the GB News host issued a severe warning that free speech is under fire more than ever as it emerges the SNP [Scottish National Party, currently in power in Scotland], the police and the British Government are engaging in more and more incidents of "dangerous censorship" and cancel culture. Mr Doyle said the "precedent" being set by actions such as the SNP's Hate Crimes bill, which could see people arrested at home for "legal but harmful speech" and the police having the power to prosecute for "non hate crime incidents" as well as having a "database of offensive language" must be stood up to or he claimed the UK faces an uncertain future. An astonishing 3,000 people per year are arrested for “offensive things they have said on the internet”. Mr Doyle added: “But again, who decides what is offensive! It is just a hopelessly subjective notion.”

CHINA - China has threatened stern action against the Royal Navy’s carrier strike group (CSG) if it does not “remain restrained and obey the rules” as it sails through the South China Sea. Defence Secretary Ben Wallace set the scene earlier this month for a confrontation with Beijing when he said the deployment led by the flagship HMS Queen Elizabeth would sail on any route defined as legitimate under international law. China claims the South China Sea despite an international court ruling in 2016 that it did not belong to the nation, which has grown increasingly assertive as it builds military bases and airport runways on constructed islands in the disputed waters. An editorial in the state-run newspaper Global Times said the CSG entered the sea on Sunday as part of the “UK’s effort to show its presence in the region”.

PHILIPPINES - Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte has officially retracted his decision to scrap the Visiting Forces Agreement (VFA), a military pact with the US that outlines rules for US troops to be stationed in the Philippines on a rotational basis. Duterte was ready to scrap the VFA last year and kick US troops out of his country over sanctions Washington imposed on Philippine officials. But he reversed the decision over tensions with Beijing in the South China Sea. The VFA was temporarily extended several times, and now the extension is permanent. The decision was announced Friday by Philippine Defense Secretary Delfin Lorenzana in a joint press conference with US Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin, who is on a small tour of the region to shore up ties to counter China. “The president decided to recall or retract the termination letter for the VFA,” Lorenzana told reporters. “There is no termination letter pending and we are back on track.”

USA - Big Tech is out of control - and the time to save our liberties and freedoms is quickly running out. This month, White House press secretary Jen Psaki made a stunning admission: the Federal Government is directly colluding with Facebook to flag "problematic" social media content on its platform. "In terms of actions that we have taken or we’re working to take, I should say, from the federal government, we’ve increased disinformation research and tracking,” she revealed during a press conference. “Within the Surgeon General’s Office, we’re flagging posts for Facebook that spread disinformation."