USA - Top politicians have 'never read the science,' Steven Koonin reveals. According to data from the US government, Koonin explained, there are "no detectable human influences" on natural disasters like hurricanes for more than a century, and today’s heatwaves in the US are just as common as they were back in 1900.

USA - Far from being a war against “white supremacy,” the Biden administration’s new “domestic terror” strategy clearly targets primarily those who oppose US government overreach and those who oppose capitalism and/or globalization. In the latest sign that the US government’s War on Domestic Terror is growing in scope and scale, the White House on Tuesday revealed the nation’s first ever government-wide strategy for confronting domestic terrorism.

UK - The global wealth gap widened during the Covid pandemic, swelling the ranks of the world’s millionaires by 5.2 million as the rich cashed in on surging stock and house prices. The figures, detailed in the annual Credit Suisse Global Wealth Report, capture how emergency interest rate cuts and government stimulus measures often benefited those least in need of state support, helping their assets grow in value despite the economic downturn. Dollar millionaires now account for more than 1% of the global population for the first time in history. The figures show that 56.1 million individuals had assets worth more than $1million (£720,000) in 2020. The UK added 258,000 millionaires last year, taking the total to 2.5 million.

UK - ‘In this present crisis, government is not the solution to our problem; government is the problem,’ proclaimed Ronald Reagan in his inaugural speech as American president. Forty years on, the leaders of the G7 have reversed this mantra. In Cornwall last week they declared that the government, and more specifically its $12 trillion of economic support, had not only been the answer during the pandemic but would continue to be the answer during the recovery. They committed ‘to support our economies for as long as is necessary, shifting the focus of our support from crisis response to promoting growth into the future’.

USA - The US is cutting air defense systems and force levels in the Middle East as the Biden administration realigns its military posture to focus on countering China and Russia. Commander Jessica L McNulty, a Pentagon spokesperson, confirmed the plans but would not provide specific details, after the Wall Street Journal reported Friday that eight Patriot anti missile batteries were being withdrawn from countries including Iraq, Kuwait, Jordan and Saudi Arabia.

USA - The US Navy has swapped more than 1,600 parts among its new Virginia-class submarines since 2013 to ease maintenance bottlenecks as components that are supposed to last 33 years wear out decades sooner. Parts are being shuttled regularly among the nuclear-powered fast-attack submarines so that vessels in the $166 billion class built by General Dynamics Corp. and Huntington Ingalls Industries Inc can return to operations, according to data from the Naval Sea Systems Command and the Congressional Budget Office. If a part isn’t available for a sub that’s finishing refurbishment, shipyard maintenance workers may be forced to borrow, or “cannibalize,” one from a submarine entering maintenance in order to reduce delays. Most cannibalized parts are for non-propulsion electronic systems, but the Navy declined to specify which ones are affected, citing operational security.

IRAN - Wells are proliferating, but data from across the country show that groundwater extraction is falling. Iran is using more groundwater than can be naturally recharged, according to an analysis of national data. And even as more wells are tapped into the ground each year, their overall output keeps dropping. Iran’s sources of groundwater include wells, springs and underground aqueducts known as qanats. Groundwater amounts to 60% of the country’s total supply and is consumed almost entirely by agriculture. In many wells, the water also becomes significantly saltier, to the point that only salt-tolerant plants would thrive if irrigated with it. Water scarcity threatens the livelihoods of people across Iran as the land becomes drier.

ISRAEL - International media coverage of the conflict in May between Hamas and Israel "played right into the hands of Hamas," whose strategy "is to essentially not only target our civilians, but embed their own civilians and essentially turn them into human shields." "And the media went for it. Unfortunately, I think it's not gullibility. I think it's more malicious. I think it's an attempt to cast Israel as the evil actor in this equation, as a force for evil." "The demonization of Jews is a very old problem. And many people believe that if we just educate people about the facts that the Jew-hatred will end. I don't believe that." "People thought that those decades after the Holocaust were a new normal, but it wasn't.... What we have is the demonization of Israel, a return to the norm of anti-Semitism." "The difference now is that the Jewish people have a state, the Jewish people have sovereign power. We have a shield, we have a refuge, we have a voice and we're going to use it." "Jews have to begin to fight back against their own demonization. If we don't stand up for ourselves... no one's going to stand up for us."

MIDDLE EAST - Hezbollah is the most successful terror group in history. The Lebanese Shia militia may not have conquered as much territory as ISIS nor attracted so many recruits, but since its founding in 1985 it has fought Israel for almost 40 years, and it has fought it well. In May 2000, Hezbollah expelled the IDF from the “security zone” it had occupied in South Lebanon for nearly two decades; in 2006 Hezbollah then fought it to a military stalemate. In doing so, the “Party of God” did more than just inflict casualities on its long-standing enemy. Since Israel’s crushing defeat of the combined Arab armies in the 1967 Six Day War, no one thought an Arab force could do more than just terrorise or harass the Israelis. Hezbollah proved them wrong. Suddenly, the Israelis were facing Iranian-trained Shia fighters in Lebanon. Things got tough. They were no longer facing just a militia group but the direct instrument of a state. “That’s the real strength of Hezbollah,” Shapira concludes, “and it’s the key to understanding their success. Hezbollah is essentially an Iranian brigade in Lebanon.”

AUSTRALIA - Australia’s endangered Tasmanian devils have eliminated a local colony of penguins and decimated other bird fauna after they were brought to Maria Island in a bid to save them from extinction due to animal cancer. According to The Australian newspaper, the devils were introduced to the tiny island off Tasmania’s east coast in 2012 as an “insurance population” due to the fears that a raging facial tumor disease would make the raccoon-sized creatures disappear completely. The arrival of the world’s largest surviving carnivorous marsupials took a horrible toll on the island’s bird colony, as the initial group of 28 devils on Maria grew to 100 in just a few years.

USA - Over the past couple of years we have become accustomed to expecting the unexpected, but soon we may have to start anticipating the unthinkable. In this article, I am going to be discussing a couple of potential scenarios that would have been unimaginable to the vast majority of Americans just a few short years ago. Unfortunately, our world is now changing at a pace that is absolutely breathtaking, and many things that were once “unimaginable” could soon become reality.

VATICAN - The Catholic Church declaring careerist European statesman Robert Schuman ‘venerable’ is proving problematic for the Vatican, which requires two provable miracles before bestowing sainthood – and who prays to a politician? No one is saying that Robert Schuman was a bad man, but Pope Francis’s decision to launch him on the path to sainthood will have the effect of conferring a legitimacy on the European Union that seems to bestow the Higher Power’s seal of approval upon this creaking political project. The Pope’s decision to mix politics with religion has certainly raised a few eyebrows. After all, Schuman’s earlier career included a stint as a minister under Marshal Philippe Pétain, the French First World War hero who later led the Vichy government that collaborated with the Nazis.

USA - Sixty Catholic Democrats from the House and Senate issued a “statement of principles” to the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops on Friday, demanding that the Conference, when drafting its document on the Eucharist due out later this year, not prohibit Catholic politicians who openly support abortion from receiving Communion despite being in open defiance of Church teachings.

USA - A Christian non-profit is challenging the Internal Revenue Service after the agency denied them tax-exempt status saying “the Bible’s teachings are typically affiliated with the Republican Party and candidates.” Christians Engaged describes itself as educational, Christian, and non-partisan, and operates out of Garland, Texas. Its three main goals, as described by the non-profit, include: To awaken, motivate, and empower ordinary believers in Jesus Christ to: pray for our nation and our elected officials regularly, vote in every election to impact our culture, and engage our hearts in some forms of political education or activism for the furtherance of our nation.

USA - The Supreme Court on Thursday delivered a unanimous defeat to LGBT couples in a high-profile case over whether Philadelphia could refuse to contract with a Roman Catholic adoption agency that says its religious beliefs prevent it from working with same-sex foster parents. Chief Justice John Roberts wrote in an opinion for a majority of the court that Philadelphia violated the First Amendment by refusing to contract with Catholic Social Services once it learned that the organization would not certify same-sex couples for adoption.