RUSSIA - The gold market could see new bullish momentum as the world could see a new type of gold standard. Friday, according to state-run RT, the Russian government has confirmed that Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa, also known as BRICS nations, will introduce a new trading currency backed by gold. The official announcement is expected to be made during the BRICS summit in August in South Africa.

USA - One of the big questions that those of us involved in exposing the secret US government censorship effort have been asking ourselves over the last few months is: did the people involved know that they were breaking the law? That question appears to have been answered with a resounding yes by the House Judiciary Committee. Yesterday it released its report, "The Weaponization of CISA: How a 'Cybersecurity' Agency Colluded with Big Tech and 'Disinformation' Partners to Censor Americans,” on government censorship.

USA - The United States, and indeed the whole world, is in a battle for truth. If we are defeated in this monumental conflict, the consequences will be catastrophic. Politicians pontificate. Educators indoctrinate. Scientists and psychologists capitulate to woke ideology about gender and sexuality. Many news agencies are producing propaganda. Potential employees alter their credentials to get jobs. And many pastors are reluctant to preach the whole counsel of God for fear of some kind of ecclesiastical retribution, congregational exodus or governmental intrusion. Russian chess grand master Garry Kasparov said, “The point of modern propaganda is to misinform, push an agenda and to exhaust your critical thinking so as to annihilate truth.”

UK - The archbishop of York has suggested that opening words of the Lord’s Prayer, recited by Christians all over the world for 2,000 years, may be “problematic” because of their patriarchal association. In his opening address to a meeting of the Church of England’s ruling body, the General Synod, Stephen Cottrell dwelt on the words “Our Father”, the start of the prayer based on Matthew 6:9–13 and Luke 11:2–4 in the New Testament. “I know the word ‘father’ is problematic for those whose experience of earthly fathers has been destructive and abusive, and for all of us who have laboured rather too much from an oppressively patriarchal grip on life,” he said.

CHINA - China‘s People’s Liberation Army is developing high-technology weapons designed to disrupt brain functions and influence government leaders or entire populations, according to a report by three open-source intelligence analysts. The weapons can be used to directly attack or control brains using microwave or other directed energy weapons in handheld guns or larger weapons firing electromagnetic beams, adding that the danger of China‘s brain warfare weapons prior to or during a conflict is no longer theoretical.

CHINA - Chinese President Xi Jinping has called on the People’s Liberation Army (PLA) to improve its combat readiness in order to be able to “win any war,” after meeting with the military command responsible for operations in the Taiwan Strait. Speaking to soldiers at the PLA’s Eastern Theater Command headquarters in Nanjing on Thursday, Xi hailed their “significant contributions” in safeguarding China’s sovereignty and urged for “vigilance against potential dangers.” “It is imperative for us to deepen planning on war and combat, upgrade the joint system of theater commands, focus on actual combat training and improve our ability to win any war,” the president said following an inspection of the command headquarters.

UK - The ocean surrounding the British Isles is experiencing a marine heatwave described as "one of the most severe on Earth." Whilst we've had warm weather on land recently, with temperatures set to exceed 20C in parts of Wales this weekend, off the coast the situation is more bleak. Oceans have reached 5C above normal temperatures and the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration says this will have a significant impact on marine life and coastal communities.

USA - “Forever chemicals” — which seep into the environment and can lead to adverse health outcomes — were recently found to be in 45% of US tap water, even as federal officials try to limit a set of chemicals once used for everything from non-stick pans to firefighting foam. “Forever chemicals” — or PFAS, which stands for per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances — are chemicals that have been used in everyday products since the 1940s and take a long time to break down due to their strong carbon-fluorine bonds, making it easy for the chemicals to linger in the environment and contaminate drinking water.

UK - The Church of England (CoE) and the greater Anglican community is facing a dilemma: just how much should they embrace gay relationships? Should they ‘evolve’ with the times, or hold on to centuries of doctrine? Reuters reported: “The Church of England’s governing body will deliberate on how priests could carry out blessings for same-sex couples when it gathers in the cathedral city of York for a five-day meeting on Friday. The assembly of bishops, clergy and laity – called the General Synod – is also due to discuss on Saturday how to protect vicars who might choose not to pray over the union of same-sex couples.”

UK - Feminist campaigner Maya Forstater has hit out at CPS guidelines stating parents could be charged with domestic abuse for refusing to pay for their child's transgender treatment or not using their preferred pronoun. Updated legal guidance for prosecutors that was quietly published by the Crown Prosecution service last year includes a list of examples of abuse of 'trans and non-binary victims'. One is 'withholding money for transitioning', while another is 'refusing to use their preferred name or pronoun.' A third adds: 'Body shaming or criticising the victim for not being 'a real man/woman' if they have not undergone reassignment surgery.' The guidance could conceivably apply to wives 'abusing' their transgender husbands or vice versa, or even children referring to their parents as 'mum' or 'dad' if they have transitioned.

EUROPE - A new study commissioned by the European Federation for Transport and Environment revealed that toxic emissions of sulfur oxides from 63 cruise ships belonging to Carnival Corporation were 43% higher than all the combustion engine vehicles in Europe. This stunning statistic comes as EU leaders have decided to ban small combustion engines for cars by 2035. But what about 'green' cruise ships? For cruise ship operators to achieve carbon-neutral status, this might take decades.

USA - The relative peace and tranquility that we had been enjoying for several months has been shattered. All of a sudden, chaos is erupting all over the globe. Rioters are setting fires in cities all over France, the IDF just conducted the largest military operation in the West Bank since 2002, and the Russians and the Ukrainians are both accusing one another of wanting to attack the Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant.

ROMANIA - Romania’s Prime Minister Marcel Ciolacu urged German Chancellor Olaf Scholz on Tuesday to further boost NATO’s eastern flank by sending over German troops to his country “soon” and “permanently.” “I hope that soon we will have German soldiers permanently on the territory of Romania,” Ciolacu said, referring to a German announcement last week to permanently send 4,000 troops to Lithuania, while speaking at a joint press conference following a meeting between the two leaders in Berlin.NATO stationed troops from countries including France in Romania, which has a direct border with Ukraine. The US has said that it will keep its troops in Romania until at least this fall. Speaking at a joint press conference following a meeting in Berlin, both leaders expressed pessimism about the possibility of the war in Ukraine ending soon

FRANCE - French police should be able to spy on suspects by remotely activating the camera, microphone and GPS of their phones and other devices, lawmakers agreed late Wednesday. Part of a wider justice reform bill, the spying provision has been attacked by the left and rights defenders as an authoritarian snoopers' charter, though Justice Minister Eric Dupond-Moretti insists it would affect only 'dozens of cases a year'. Covering laptops, cars and other connected objects as well as phones, the measure would allow geolocation of suspects in crimes punishable by at least five years' jail. Devices could also be remotely activated to record sound and images of people suspected of terror offenses, as well as delinquency and organised crime.

USA - An update to Google's privacy policy suggests that the entire public internet is fair game for its AI projects. Google updated its privacy policy over the weekend, explicitly saying the company reserves the right to scrape just about everything you post online to build its AI tools. If Google can read your words, assume they belong to the company now, and expect that they’re nesting somewhere in the bowels of a chatbot. “Google uses information to improve our services and to develop new products, features and technologies that benefit our users and the public,” the new Google policy says. “For example, we use publicly available information to help train Google’s AI models and build products and features like Google Translate, Bard, and Cloud AI capabilities.”