USA - The collapse of the Russian ruble and the Chinese yuan shows why a potential BRICS currency is not a threat to the US dollar’s status as the world’s reserve currency, Breitbart Economics Editor John Carney told Fox Business host Larry Kudlow Friday. As the BRICS countries of Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa prepare to meet next week in Johannesburg, the currencies of two of its members are falling fast. “I would bail out of that club if I were Brazil and India,” Carney quipped. When asked if BRICS is a threat to the dollar, Carney shot back, “Absolutely not. And what we’re seeing in the collapse of the ruble and the collapse of China’s currency is the rest of the world wants nothing to do with these controlled economy currencies.”

CANADA - One man learned that going green is a crock the hard way. Dalbir Bala, a resident of Winnipeg, bought an electric Ford F-150 for $85,000 and was forced to abandon it after discovering it wasn’t worth the cost. Moreover, it’s not for working people who must spend an arm and a leg installing the charging station in their home. This individual spent around $130,000 on this green initiative, with the bonus of discovering that the fast charging stations only charge his batteries up to 90 percent. It’s more expensive to recharge these vehicles than refueling a gas-powered car. Bala declared that electric cars were the “biggest scam of modern times”.

SWITZERLAND - Switzerland will step up its military cooperation with NATO “as much as possible,” a new policy document has revealed. While the country’s military leaders have pushed for more integration with the US-led bloc for some time, lawmakers in Bern are concerned that Switzerland’s famous neutrality will be compromised. Swiss troops already attend some foreign training exercises, but military chiefs will “expand this bilateral and multilateral training cooperation as much as possible,” according to a report published on Thursday by the Swiss army. Although air force and special forces units sometimes train with NATO countries, the report calls for Switzerland’s ground troops to take part in the bloc’s joint exercises, and to operate in line with NATO doctrine.

USA - Hurricane Hilary is expected to hit Southern California as a tropical storm, bringing heavy rainfall as early as this weekend after it makes its way up Mexico's Baja California Peninsula. The storm prompted officials at the National Hurricane Center on Friday to issue a tropical storm watch for parts of Southern California for the first time. As of Friday morning, Hurricane Hilary was located about 360 miles south-southwest of Cabo San Lucas, Mexico, with maximum sustained winds of 145 mph, making it a "major" Category 4, the hurricane center said, adding that it is "large and powerful." "It is rare — indeed nearly unprecedented in the modern record — to have a tropical system like this move through Southern California," Postel told CBS News.

USA - In the early 2010s reports emerged of a nightmarish drug appearing in Russia and eastern Europe. Krokodil, a cheap substitute for heroin that was concocted in kitchen laboratories, left users with scaly skin and rotting wounds. Now a similarly damaging drug, a fentanyl mix known as tranq dope, has arrived in America. Deaths associated with it have almost quadrupled since 2019, rising as a share of fentanyl-related deaths from 3% in January that year to 11% in June 2022. Last month the White House announced a plan to stop its spread. How worrying is tranq dope?

USA - Two-thirds of US adults have been impacted in some way by the nation’s substance use crisis, a new KFF Tracking Poll found. Sixty-six percent of respondents in the poll said either they themselves or a family member have experienced addiction to alcohol or drugs, homelessness due to addiction, or an overdose resulting in an emergency room visit, hospitalization or death. Among that group, 76 percent said addiction had at least some effect on their relationship with their family, while 70 percent said it impacted their mental health, and 57 percent said their family’s financial situation was affected.

HAWAII - The Wall Street Journal reported Wednesday that Hawaiian Electric, the biggest power supplier in the state, focused on shifting to renewable energy sources to combat climate change, rather than spending money to address fire risk around its power lines. Earlier that day, John Podesta, a left-wing stalwart who advises President Joe Biden on clean energy, took to the White House podium to blame climate change for the wildfire in Maui, which destroyed Lahaina and has likely killed hundreds of people. But a cause of the fire is still unknown, and the San Francisco Chronicle has reported that the fire was fueled by alien, invasive grass species that have come to dominate the local landscape, and which burned quickly in winds fed by an offshore hurricane. The company had plans to spend nearly $200 million on wildfire mitigation measures on Maui, the Journal reported, but instead had spent less than $245,000. The wildfire plan was stalled by bureaucracy; in the interim, the company focused on climate goals.

INDIA - An invitation for the group’s summit in New Delhi has not been extended to Kiev, the Indian foreign minister has said. Indian Foreign Minister Subrahmanyam Jaishankar has reiterated New Delhi’s position on Ukraine’s potential participation at the G20 summit in September. Speaking to the media on Wednesday, Jaishankar stated that Ukraine had not been extended an invitation to the high-profile gathering of leaders of the world’s major economies, which includes Russia, a permanent member of the G20. Jaishankar explained that India’s position on Ukraine’s participation is due to the fact that the G20 is primarily focused on fostering growth and development, leaving matters of conflict resolution to be addressed at the UN Security Council. The G20 includes Argentina, Australia, Brazil, Canada, China, France, Germany, India, Indonesia, Italy, Japan, Mexico, South Korea, Russia, Saudi Arabia, South Africa, Turkey, the US, UK, and EU. Its member states combined represent 85% of global GDP, 75% of international trade, and two-thirds of the world’s population.

EUROPE - Europe's summer of wild weather continued overnight as a German airport was flooded by ferocious rain and northern Italy was lashed by a thunderstorm... while a 40C heat dome moved in over Italy, Spain and southern France. The weather on the continent in recent months has been characterised by a north-south divide, with southern Europe suffering from extreme heat as northern and central Europe is battered by powerful storms and deadly flooding. German authorities said on Thursday that heavy rain led to dozens of flight cancellations at Frankfurt airport, the country's busiest and a major European hub. The storm swept over southwest Germany late Wednesday, dumping huge quantities of water and reportedly unleashing over 25,000 bolts of lightning in about an hour. Last week, a heatwave saw temperatures reach towards 47C, with Valencia smashing its all time highest temperature on record. In Turkey, meanwhile, the country recorded 50C+ for the first time.

UK - A new Covid variant has caused scientists to demand that Britons start wearing face masks again. Scientists have suggested that the UK may have to reintroduce lockdown rules, after a new variant has been recorded in multiple countries. The new variant, dubbed BA.X online, has allegedly been found in Denmark and Israel, although this has not been officially confirmed. The scientific community is split on how to deal with the new variant. T. Ryan Gregory, a Canadian evolutionary biologist, labelled the new strain as “interesting and potentially concerning”. Whilst he said it is too early to tell if BA.X will spread rapidly yet, the fact that it’s been spotted in multiple countries is worrying.

UK - “Scientists” in England are telling the public to wear masks again, despite the fact that when Scotland had mask mandates and England didn’t, Scotland actually had higher case rates. Amazing to see how evidence and data don’t actually matter to “experts” anymore.

RUSSIA - Russians got richer last year even as the war in Ukraine raged on, while the US and Europe lost trillions of dollars, UBS reported. Russia added $600 billion of total wealth, the Swiss bank found in its annual Global Wealth Report, published Tuesday. The number of Russian millionaires also rose by about 56,000 to 408,000 in 2022, while the number of ultra-high-net-worth individuals — people worth over $50 million — jumped by nearly 4,500. But the US lost more wealth than any other country last year, shedding $5.9 trillion, while North America and Europe combined got $10.9 trillion poorer, UBS reported.

GERMANY - The majority of respondents believe the nation’s officials are unable to fulfill their duties, a new survey shows. Trust in the state has fallen to record lows in Germany and most of the population thinks their officials are simply incapable of doing their job, a new survey commissioned by the nation’s biggest public sector employee union shows. The number of people who believe that the state is ‘overwhelmed’ with the tasks it is facing has reached 69%, the poll (conducted by the Forsa Institute for Social Research and Statistical Analysis) indicates. The number of people who still trust the abilities of their public officials has fallen by two percentage points, in comparison to the previous year, and amounted to just 27%. In 2020, when Germany was facing the first wave of the Covid-19 pandemic, only 40% of its citizens believed that the state was failing to fulfill its duties. Another poll – commissioned by Germany’s ARD public broadcaster in early August – shows that public approval of the German government fell to just 21%, down from 60% in 2020.

GERMANY - Berlin previously promised to meet the bloc’s 2% target over a five-year period. Germany has quietly dropped a plan to make NATO’s military spending targets legally binding, a government source told Reuters on Wednesday. The budget financing law passed by Chancellor Olaf Scholz’s cabinet on Wednesday was missing a provision that would have made the bloc’s defense spending target of 2% of GDP a legal requirement, according to the source. According to Moscow, Ukraine has lost nearly 5,000 pieces of heavy weaponry and over 43,000 soldiers since launching its long-awaited counteroffensive in June, with no significant change in the front lines to show for it. Russia has repeatedly warned that continued arms supplies to Ukraine will only extend the conflict and prolong human suffering.

GERMANY - German Chancellor Olaf Scholz has welcomed the recent summit on Ukraine hosted by Saudi Arabia. German Chancellor Olaf Scholz has called for a greater diplomatic effort to end the ongoing conflict between Moscow and Kiev, saying that the recent summit on Ukraine in Jeddah was a “very special” event. Scholz made the remarks in his major annual summer interview with German state broadcaster ZDF, which aired on Sunday. The chancellor urged for further diplomatic efforts, stating diplomacy can be useful to “press” Russia.