UK - Unelected peers in the House of Lords are plotting to prevent the next prime minister from suspending parliament and facilitating a no-deal Brexit. Conservative Party leadership hopeful Boris Johnson has pledged to take the United Kingdom out of the EU on October 31st with or without a deal, but Remainers in the House of Commons are conspiring to find ways to stop the country leaving the bloc in a clean break. To stop Remainers frustrating Brexit, the next prime minister could prorogue (temporarily suspend) the parliament in the autumn — an option which Mr Johnson has not ruled out. Conservative peer Baroness Altmann told The Times: “We hope that Parliament can assert its authority, to protect the national interest, rather than be overridden by a group determined to impose its own harmful agenda on the country, without any democratic mandate for such action.”

GERMANY - Around 50 percent of Germans are wary of Islam, a new study by a local NGO found. The pollsters blame the media for this state of affairs, adding that tolerance of other major religions in the country is much higher. In a study on religious diversity conducted by the German Bertelsmann Foundation, one-third of the respondents see Islam as “enriching” German society. At the same time, half of participants said they view it as a “threat.” The percentage of those skeptical about Islam is even higher in the eastern regions of the country – around 57 percent – even though fewer Muslims live there. Meanwhile, Germans seem to have fewer reservations about other major religions. The study found that the “majority” of respondents are fine with Christianity, Judaism, Hinduism, and Buddhism.

USA - The debate over whether schools should teach sex education to minors has been going on for decades. But now, perhaps more than ever, many parents are horrified by what their children are being taught – especially when parents, despite their religious beliefs, have no say about the teaching materials. In a small California community, parents and clergy were so appalled at the explicit and LGBTQ-inspired lessons, they went undercover to investigate deeper. What they discovered at a Riverside County Comprehensive Health Education meeting so horrified them, they determined to stop the curriculum.

USA - Shhh! Don’t wake the Wall Street bank regulators from their decade-long slumber to whisper in their ear that the same critical signs they ignored in 2007 and early 2008 are rearing their ugly heads again. Let’s take a look at the clear warning signs that began in July 2007 and then contrast them against what is happening today.

USA - As we rapidly approach yet another presidential election cycle here in the United States, it can’t be emphasized enough that the very same fake news outlets and tech monopolies that have been screaming “Russian collusion!” nonstop for the past three years are now the ones actively colluding with each other to try to steal the next election from President Trump, as well as silence all online free speech.

GERMANY - There seems to be a new drug to treat anything and everything these days, but are these medications as effective as they claim to be? A new study has concluded that the answer to that question is no. Furthermore, researchers say that international drug development processes, standards, and policies are fundamentally broken and must be reformed. According to the study performed at the German Institute for Quality and Efficiency in Health Care, more than half of the new drugs entering the German healthcare system show absolutely no added benefit.

GERMANY - The German government intends to continue the war mission of the Bundeswehr (Germany‘s Armed Forces) in Syria and deploy the Air Force in the entire region beyond October 31, contrary to the provisions of its current parliamentary mandate. This was announced by government spokesman Steffen Seibert at a press conference in Berlin earlier this week. For years, Germany has made “a considerable and internationally recognized contribution to the anti-IS coalition,” explained Seibert. The Bundeswehr was “active in aerial reconnaissance, in aerial refuelling and also in the training of Iraqi units.” Now the German government “together with our allies, with the American side, is talking about how the engagement in the region should develop further.”

GERMANY - The state of the German chancellor’s health has implications well beyond her country’s borders. Merkel is widely considered the most important leader in Europe, a fact that makes the state of her health an important issue well beyond her country’s borders. With questions swirling about the suitability of her chosen successor, Annegret Kramp-Karrenbauer, the chancellor’s sudden departure would almost certainly unleash a period of chaos. There’s no guarantee Germany’s governing coalition would hold, for example, forcing a new election that — if current polls are to be believed — would upend Germany’s political landscape with profound implications for all of Europe.

UK - After a leak revealed that the British Ambassador to the USA had called Trump "inept, insecure and incompetent" (leading to the ambassador’s resignation and a round of Twitter insults between Trump and senior Tory officials), London’s Metropolitan Police Assistant Commissioner Neil Basu publicly warned journalists not to publish government leaks, threatening to imprison them if they do: "I would advise all owners, editors and publishers of social and mainstream media not to publish leaked government documents that may already be in their possession, or which may be offered to them, and to turn them over to the police or give them back to their rightful owner, Her Majesty’s Government."

PHILIPPINES - An earthquake of magnitude 5.8 has struck the Philippines according to seismologists. The EMSC Twitter account reports the earthquake struck 175km (109 miles) north east of the city of Cagayan de Oro. The city is in the northern part of the Mindanao island, the second largest in the country. The magnitude of 5.8 is in the top of the moderate ranking with damage to some buildings and can be felt by everyone in the vicinity. The tremor was detected 158 miles from Davao, a city of 1.6 million, where current Philippine President Rodrigo Durtete served as mayor. Cagayan de Oro, whose name translates from local languages and Spanish as River of Gold, has a population of over 675,000 thousand. The Philippines is located within the ring of fire, a major basin straddling the Pacific Ocean where earthquakes and volcanic eruptions are prone to occur. Around 90 percent of the world’s earthquakes occur in this part of the world.

FINLAND - A new scientific study could bust wide open deeply flawed fundamental assumptions underlying controversial climate legislation and initiatives such as the Green New Deal, namely, the degree to which ‘climate change’ is driven by natural phenomena vs man-made issues measured as carbon footprint. Scientists in Finland found “practically no anthropogenic [man-made] climate change” after a series of studies.

GERMANY - German prosecutor Ralph Knispel has claimed that courts in the German capital are so overburdened, they lack the capacity to carry out litigation against suspects. In Berlin alone, there are an estimated 8,500 arrest warrants yet to be carried out, according to Knispel who said that the criminal scene in the city is “laughing at the justice system”, German news magazine Focus reports. Knispel made his claims on a German television programme, adding that lack of resources meant that things like DNA tests could take anywhere from two to three years to be analysed due to a lack of trained staff and resources.

USA - Reuters reports that Jerome Powell, the chairman of the Federal Reserve, has warned that Facebook’s digital currency Libra “cannot go forward” until serious concerns about the project are addressed. Powell commented on Facebook’s project during his semi-annual testimony on monetary policy before the House of Representatives Financial Services Committee. Powell stated: “Libra raises many serious concerns regarding privacy, money laundering, consumer protection, and financial stability.” Powell later added “I don’t think the project can go forward,” without addressing those issues.

MIDDLE EAST - On Wednesday, five Iranian gunboats attempted to seize a British oil tanker as it was traveling through the Persian Gulf …this was apparently done in retaliation for an incident which happened in Gibraltar less than a week earlier. British Royal Marines captured a tanker that was reportedly taking Iranian oil to Syria, and the Iranian government warned the British that there would be “consequences” for that action. Apparently the Iranians felt that since the British grabbed an oil tanker that they should return the favor, and they may have gotten away with it if a British warship had not quickly intervened.

CHINA - The largest supplier of consumer goods in the world - China's Li & Fung - has said that Chinese factories are becoming "urgent and desperate" as US retailers move out of the country amid the ongoing trade war, according to Bloomberg, and more factory shut downs are likely to follow as the trade war continues. Companies like Li & Fung Ltd, which designs, sources and transports consumer goods from Asia for some of the world’s biggest retailers, are being pushed by their American clients to shift production out of China. Because of its position as a liaison connecting American retail companies to Asian factories, Fung has a clear perspective of the shifts taking place around the world due to the trade war. Fung continued, talking about President Trump and his Twitter habits: "Nobody’s investing, nobody’s buying. The trade war is causing people to stop investment because they don’t know where to put the money."