SWEDEN - As the Pride festival in Stockholm continues, it has turned out that several leading persons in the organisation have been convicted for sexual crimes. Rape, child pornography and grooming against under-aged boys and girls are listed among the crimes carried out by men as well as women. It is the Christian news site Världen idag which has examined cases of child molestation within the Swedish LGBT community. The Pride organisation’s press department does not want to respond to questions from the news site since it considers that the questions “are incorrectly asked”.

USA - Plant-based burger 'Opens a New Window' makers say their burgers are better for the planet than beef burgers. But are they better for their consumers’ health? The Meatless Farm claims its products are "almost indistinguishable from meat in terms of taste and texture" and are 100 percent plant-based, which is basically the same thing that Beyond Meat and Impossible Foods say about their burgers. “The trick to all of these meatless burgers is they want them to taste like real meat in order to convert traditional meat-eaters. When they do that, they add processed chemicals to them, they add high sodium content to them because if something doesn’t taste salty, it doesn’t taste like real meat. From a nutritional aspect: this is still an indulgence. This is a processed food. This is a junk food. It just happens to be a vegetarian or vegan junk food."

FRANCE - An animal rights activist is facing unwavering ridicule for urging people to not kill mosquitoes, and instead give them the “blood donation” they need to nourish their future children. French TV presenter Aymeric Caron was answering questions for the animal rights channel Komoto.tv when he was asked: “What do we do if we are anti-special and we are attacked by mosquitoes?” Anti-specists are people who believe that all species should be treated equally. In an explanation that has attracted enormous criticism, Caron explained that mosquitoes who bite people are simply hunting “for protein to feed their developing eggs, and therefore their babies.” Unsurprisingly, the suggestion was extremely poorly received and Caron was quickly branded a “fool” and “dangerously irresponsible.”

UK - A nationwide poll has revealed that 89 per cent of 16- to 29-year-old's believe that their lives have no meaning or purpose. The poll, conducted by Japanese company Yakult and reported by The Sun, also found that 30 per cent of young people believe they are stuck in a rut with 84 per cent saying that they believe they are failing to “live their best life”. With religion being a major source of sense of purpose, a separate survey reported last month that those professing a Christian faith in the UK is at a record low at 38 per cent, with only one per cent of 18- to 24-year-olds identifying as belonging to the Church of England.

UK - Eurosceptic sentiment has divided the Conservative Party ever since the creation of the European Community in 1957 but there was one Tory MP people should have listened to who predicted the project would become a political power stripping member states of their sovereignties. Prominent Tory figure Enoch Powell was one of the first Conservative eurosceptics to warn of the political agenda of the European Union who fought for the UK to never join the bloc.

EUROPE - Brussels correspondent for Express.co.uk, Joe Barnes, has revealed the mood of EU politicians as Boris Johnson nudges the UK towards a no deal Brexit. “The mood is very much no deal is going to happen, it is going to be Britain’s fault. Because Britain had a deal that was offered and agreed by the British Government and the EU. Now you have rejected it and want to rip it up so it will just be no deal. There won’t be a last-minute compromise unless they find a joint landing zone that is acceptable”. EU leaders have stuck firm insisting the withdrawal agreement, which was secured by Theresa May, will not be altered.

USA - Things are starting to go downhill rather quickly now. A day after the Federal Reserve cut interest rates for the first time in more than a decade, we received a whole bunch more bad economic news. Most Americans don’t realize it yet, but our economy is in serious trouble. We haven’t seen anything like this since the last recession, but most people seem to think that since stock prices are still very high that everything must be fine. No, everything is definitely not “fine”, and as I noted yesterday, a lot of prominent names are loudly sounding the alarm. Many analysts are expecting things to really start breaking loose as we get deeper into the second half of this year, and what we witnessed on Thursday certainly didn’t make the outlook any brighter. President Trump completely shocked Wall Street when he announced that yet another round of tariffs will be imposed upon Chinese goods. This is essentially the equivalent of a “gut punch”, and it definitely takes our trade war with China to an entirely new level.

USA - Millennials who have delayed marriage, children, and homeownership, have been spending their money not just on servicing their student loans but also on fun adventures throughout Southeast Asia. Some of these youngsters have been backpacking in countries like Hong Kong and Thailand without money, forced onto the streets to beg for money to fund the remainder of their trip, reported The Guardian. Locals have called western backpackers: "begpackers," and government officials in several countries have had enough with these pesky white youngsters asking for money from people who are significantly poorer than they are. Asian countries aren't the only ones affected, local officials in New Zealand are concerned about the rise of begpacking.

USA - We have raised an entire generation of Americans that have no respect for the law, and now we are reaping what we have sown. I cannot even begin to tell you how alarmed I am by some of the videos that I have been watching lately. All over the nation young people are brazenly flouting the law, obstructing and assaulting law enforcement officers, and committing criminal acts in large groups. I think that “lawlessness” is perhaps the best word to describe what is happening, and many believe that what we have witnessed so far is just the beginning. I have so much respect for the good law enforcement officers across the country that put their lives on the line day after day to protect all of us, but I wouldn’t want to be in their shoes at this point.

UK - When you buy a cup of coffee, you might have noticed that of the three size options – small, medium and large – the medium-sized serving often costs almost as much as the large. Given the apparent bargain, have you ever opted for the biggest and most expensive option?

USA - Paul Craig Roberts, former Assistant Secretary of the Treasury, on the danger posed by the FBI to our civil liberties. Despite the finger-pointing and outcries of dismay from those who are watching the government discard the rule of law at every turn, the question is not whether Donald Trump is the new Adolf Hitler but whether the American Police State is the new Third Reich. For those who can view the present and past political landscape without partisan blinders, the warning signs are unmistakable: the Deep State’s love affair with totalitarianism began long ago. Indeed, the US government so admired the Nazi regime that following the second World War, it secretly recruited Hitler’s employees, adopted his protocols, embraced his mindset about law and order, implemented his tactics in incremental steps, and began to lay the foundations for the rise of the Fourth Reich.

Sounds far-fetched? Read on.

USA - Wednesday during Fox News Channel’s post-Democratic presidential debate coverage, Representative Tulsi Gabbard (Democrat for Hawai) offered an ominous warning regarding big technology companies like Facebook and Google as it pertains to the election in the United States. Gabbard explained her ordeal with Google following last month’s MSNBC debate, which she said was a threat to free speech.

SPAIN - Scientists have successfully created the world’s first human-monkey embryo, paving the way towards using animals for human organ transplants. The experiment was conducted in China to avoid legal issues. Researchers from the Salk Institute in the US and the Murcia Catholic University (UCAM) in Spain genetically modified monkey embryos to deactivate specific genes used in the formation of organs. The group then injected human stem cells into the embryo. If left to its own devices, the embryo would have grown into a monkey with human cells. However, in keeping with ethical standards, the scientists stopped the process long before the embryo was able to develop a central nervous system. Still, the team had to travel to China to conduct the procedure, as it was in violation of Spanish law. Estrella Núñez, who collaborated on the project, told El Pais that “the results are very promising,” stating that the experiment was a necessary first step towards developing human organs in animals that could be used in transplants.

USA - If we were rational creatures, we would fear our back yards more than our beaches. Though oceans contain real-life monsters like the great white, our lawns and parks are home to humankind’s deadliest foe: the ubiquitous mosquito. “The mosquito has killed more people than any other cause of death in human history,” writes Winegard. “Statistical extrapolation situates mosquito-inflicted deaths approaching half of all humans that have ever lived.” Last year mosquitoes killed 850,000 people — but the annual average hovers around 2 million. Sharks, by contrast, killed 10.

USA - It’s dry in the Pacific Northwest, British Columbia and Alaska. Very dry. A contiguous stretch of over 2,000 miles of Pacific coastline is experiencing drought conditions ranging from “abnormally dry” to “extreme drought,” according to US and Canadian Drought Monitors. While drought has receded across much of the Canadian provinces from June, and overall conditions in the lower 48 US states have skirted with 20-year lows over the past two months, conditions in Ketchikan, Alaska, have been termed “severe” and Aberdeen, Washington, “exceptional”.