INDIA - The Group of 20 leaders have agreed to a plan to eventually impose digital currencies and digital IDs on their respective populations, despite fears that governments will use them to monitor their peoples’ spending and crush dissent. The G20, which is currently under India’s presidency, adopted a final declaration on the subject over the weekend in New Delhi. The meeting, which included the world’s leading economies, announced last week that they had agreed to build the necessary infrastructure to implement digital currencies and IDs. The group said that discussions were already underway to create international regulations for cryptocurrencies, but claimed that there was “no talk of banning cryptocurrency” at the summit. Many critics are concerned that governments and central banks will eventually regulate cryptocurrencies and then immediately replace them with central bank digital currencies (CBDCs), which lack similar privacy and security.

ISRAEL - Jerusalem cops gear up for holiday tensions. Both Jews and Muslims will be able to visit Temple Mount during tense High Holiday period, as cops step up security measures amid reported uptick in threats. Jerusalem police chief Doron Turgeman indicated forces are also focusing on the tinderbox Temple Mount in the Old City, which normally sees a large uptick in Jewish visitors over holidays, contributing to tensions.

NIGER - The situation in post-coup Niger seems to be headed to a military showdown between the Sahel nations (Mali and Burkina Faso have vowed to help Niger) and the Western powers France and US, who have troops in Nigerien territory, aligned with the ECOWAS nations African ‘democracies’. The French ignored the junta’s ultimatums to remove both its diplomatic mission and its military troops from Niger, but are now alarmed by an arrest. France’s Foreign Ministry stated that a French official has been arrested, and called for the junta to ‘immediately release him’. French President Emmanuel Macron ordered the ambassador to stay at his post, despite being ordered to leave. This arrest will raise already high tensions between France and Niger, its former colony.

USA - Shocking footage has exposed the scene in an Austin park filled with liquor bottles, needles, Narcan and junk 'as far as the eye can see,' as a homeless encampment continues to grow. The videos of the West Bouldin Creek Greenbelt were posted on Monday by activist Jamie Hammonds, who reports from the Texas capital on the X page @DocumentingATX. 'Another Greenbelt destroyed here in Austin... nothing but trash and junk as far as you can see... this is absolutely horrible,' Hammonds said, adding that the encampment was at least the size of a football field, and you could smell it 'even before you enter the greenbelt.' He continued: 'This is another beautiful Austin Greenbelt that will never be the same. This is infuriating... It’s just been destroyed. It’s going to be interesting to see if the city can actually clean this.'

LIBYA - Storm Daniel hit the coastal city of Derna and other eastern parts of the North African country on Sunday, leading to floods, with the death toll so far reaching at least 5,100 in Derna alone. Moin Kikhia, a former civil servant in Libya’s finance ministry and the founder of the Libyan Democratic Institute, told The Telegraph: 'The number of deaths is much larger than first thought but no one has the exact numbers. The government thinks it might exceed 40,000 dead but no one wants to say it for fear of making the people angry.' Derna, about 900 kilometres (560 miles) east of the capital, Tripoli, is controlled by the forces of powerful military commander Khalifa Hifter, who is allied with the eastern Libyan government. Derna was once a hub for extremist groups in the years of chaos that followed the NATO-backed uprising that toppled and killed longtime dictator Moammar Gadhafi in 2011.… Due to ongoing gunbattles in Ein el-Hilweh, the family there could not hold a gathering to receive condolences from friends and neighbours, Mohammed said.

USA - NASA released the findings of its highly-anticipated study today, scrutinizing more than 800 sightings of UFOs across three decades — with 'inconclusive' results for those who 'want to believe.' 'To date, in the peer-reviewed scientific literature, there is no conclusive evidence suggesting an extraterrestrial origin for UAP,' NASA's panel of experts wrote in their new report which was, in part, designed to recommend future investigative avenues.

POLAND - When the leadership of one of the largest Christian communions – the Lutheran World Federation, representing approximately 80 million Christians worldwide – gathered in Krakow this week they were riveted by a remarkable keynote address by the Czech priest and philosopher Tomáš Halík. Their guest spoke elegantly of a “new reformation”, saying, “We will only receive the gift of unity among Christians if we engage in a common journey towards an even wider and deeper ecumenism.” “We need to have the courage to transcend the current forms and boundaries of Christianity,” he told them. Halík argued that the synodal process launched by Pope Francis has a much broader and deeper meaning than the reform of Catholic internal culture and structures. His hope is that we are on the cusp of a movement that will transform and unite Christianity so that it sees its goal as embracing all of humanity and the whole of creation.

USA - With more than 22,000 migrants being held in custody, a source within US Customs and Border Protection says the Border Patrol is being forced to cut routine patrols along the border. In some areas, highway inspection checkpoints have been closed to accommodate another increase in the number of migrant crossings. On Monday alone, the agency apprehended more than 7,700 migrants nationwide. According to CBP, between October and July, more than 1.6 million migrants have crossed into the United States at the southern border. According to unofficial reports reviewed by Breitbart Texas, just under 180,000 migrants were apprehended in August, bringing the total migrant encounters across the southwest border to more than 1.8 million. As reported by Breitbart Texas, nearly 600,000 migrants have managed to avoid capture by the Border Patrol since October and are listed as “Got-Aways.”

ITALY - The Italian Red Cross sounded the alarm Wednesday about humanitarian conditions on the Sicilian island of Lampedusa after more than 5,000 people in more than 100 different migrant boats arrived in one day with smugglers in north Africa taking advantage of calm seas to set off. Dozens of new arrivals crouched on the rocky jetties of Lampedusa´s port, while others sheltered in the shade of a nearby camping ground as the island´s lone migrant welcome center, which has a capacity of around 400, overflowed with more than 6,000 people. So far this year, more than 115,000 people have arrived by boat, nearly double the 63,000 in the same period last year or the 41,000 in 2021, according to interior ministry statistics.

UK - Highest daily total for migrant crossings this year as 872 people detected in small boats. More than 800 people were detected crossing the Channel in small boats yesterday - the highest number on a single day so far this year. The latest Home Office figures show 872 people arrived in 15 vessels yesterday - taking the total to arrive so far this year to 20,973. The number yesterday surpasses the previous highest daily total of 756 on 10 August. The development will be a further blow to Rishi Sunak who has endured a number of setbacks regarding the small boats crisis this summer. Mr Sunak has made stopping the small boat crossings one of his five key priorities for his government, but his plans for bringing down illegal immigration have been mired in difficulty and delay.

RUSSIA - The two leaders met for about five hours earlier in the day. North Korea said leader Kim Jong Un invited Russian President Vladimir Putin to visit North Korea following their nearly five-hour meeting on Wednesday. According to North Korea's state-run media, Korean Central News Agency, Kim "cordially" invited Putin to visit North Korea at a "convenient time" and that Putin accepted with "pleasure and reaffirmed his will to invariably carry forward the history" of friendship between the nations. Earlier in the day, the two leaders had their summit and also toured a space base in Russia's Far East, signaling a unified front against the West. "I am so grateful you are paying such attention to our visit to Russia," Putin said at the Vostochny Cosmodrome, adding, "I'm sure we will remain together in our fight against imperialism." The North Korean leader said his country supported Russia's invasion of neighboring Ukraine. "Russia has risen to a sacred fight to its sovereignty and security against the hegemonic forces," Kim said. "North Korea supports all Putin's decisions."

MEXICO - Jaime Maussan, who has led investigations into alien phenomena for decades, stood with scientists to unveil two corpses in what he called a 'watershed' event in front of Mexican Congress on Tuesday. The researchers made the extraordinary claim that the corpses, presented in windowed boxes and supposedly recovered from Cusco in Peru, were not part of 'our terrestrial evolution', with 30 per cent of their genetic composition still 'unknown', according to Mexican media. Carbon dating by the National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM) found the bodies, pictured with three-fingered hands, no teeth and stereoscopic vision, were more than 1,000 years old, Maussan claimed. But Maussan - who has been associated with debunked alien theories in the past - insisted under oath on Tuesday: 'These specimen are not part of our terrestrial evolution. 'We are not alone in this vast universe, we should embrace this reality,' he said at the event.

MEXICO - The specter of little green men visited Mexico City as lawmakers heard testimony Tuesday from individuals suggesting the possibility that extraterrestrials might exist. The researchers hailed from Mexico, the United States, Japan and Brazil. The session, unprecedented in the Mexican Congress, took place two months after a similar one before the US Congress in which a former US Air Force intelligence officer claimed his country has probably been aware of “non-human” activity since the 1930s. Mexican journalist José Jaime Maussan presented two boxes with supposed mummies found in Peru, which he and others consider “non-human beings that are not part of our terrestrial evolution." In 2017, Maussan made similar claims in Peru, and a report by the country's prosecutor's office found that the bodies were actually “recently manufactured dolls, which have been covered with a mixture of paper and synthetic glue to simulate the presence of skin.”

USA - Officials with the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) announced Tuesday that one of America’s leading cold medicines doesn’t actually work, following a review of the latest research on the subject. “At issue is phenylephrine, an almost-century-old ingredient in versions of Benadryl, Mucinex, Tylenol and other over-the-counter pills, syrups and liquids to clear up congested noses,” the Wall Street Journal reported. “Phenylephrine, first permitted for use in 1938, didn’t go through the rigorous clinical trials that regulators require today for medications, and more recent studies found the ingredient to be ineffective at relieving congestion. The latest research prompted pharmacists and physicians to call for ending the sales of the drugs.”

LIBYA - Libya is racing to bury its dead as bodies pile up in the streets of Derna, the northern coastal city devastated by flooding after a torrential downpour smashed through two dams, washing homes into the sea. The death toll rose to over 6,000 people as of Wednesday morning local time, according to Saadeddin Abdul Wakil, health ministry undersecretary of the Unity Government in Tripoli, one of two rival governments operating in the country.