USA - The Establishment’s determination to close down narrative-challenger Alex Jones has put Sandy Hook back in the news. As First Amendment protection is fading, I checked to see what I had written about Sandy Hook. I was relieved to see that I had only reported on the skepticism and asked questions. My search of the IPE archives brought up my articles on other controversial shootings – Las Vegas and Orlando – and the Oklahoma City Bombing. The common thread in all of these incidents is that the narrative is established the minute the news is reported, and officials and media never vary from the narrative.

USA - Things have never been harder for America’s farmers and ranchers than they are right now. Their relentless hard work keeps us fed, but now many of them are being financially ruined by forces beyond their control. Back in 1900, there were approximately 5.7 million family farms in the United States, but at that time the total population of the country was just 76 million. Today, there are only about 2.2 million family farms in the United States, but the total population of the country has grown to 329 million. Agriculture is slowly but surely being consolidated, and the big fish have far more power than the little fish do. It has gotten to a point where it has become nearly impossible for many small farmers and ranchers to survive. Small farmers and small ranchers are the backbone of this country, and without them we don’t eat. Unfortunately, hardly anyone seems to notice that more of them are going under with each passing day.

MEXICO - Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador urged the international community on Thursday to agree to a five-year truce amid the Ukraine conflict and stand-off over Taiwan. Speaking at a press conference at the National Palace in Mexico City, the president said that geopolitical tensions between China, Taiwan, and the US are hurting the world, which is reeling under record inflation and supply chain issues. “Nations can agree on a truce of at least five years to be able to face the crisis affecting the peoples. A truce that ends war, confrontation, and provocations,” he said. “Once the fighting stops, let things stay as they are, especially the war between Russia and Ukraine.”

NORTH KOREA - North Korea laid the groundwork for a nuclear test in the first half of this year, Reuters reported on Friday, citing a confidential report submitted to a UN watchdog committee. “Work at the Punggye-ri nuclear test site paves the way for additional nuclear tests for the development of nuclear weapons,” independent monitors reportedly told the UN Security Council Sanctions Committee on North Korea. According to Reuters, the experts also believe that North Korea “continued to develop its capability for the production of fissile material” at the Yongbyon site. The monitors were referring to the nuclear research center that was established with Soviet assistance in the 1960s and operates the nation’s first nuclear reactors. The monitors are also said to have accused the North of stealing crypto assets to the tune of hundreds of millions of dollars in an apparent effort to fund its missile and nuclear programs. The US has vowed to push for steeper sanctions against Pyongyang if it proceeds with its seventh nuclear test.

USA - Electric vehicle manufacturer Lucid has had to deal with battery fires twice in a three-month span. Both fires broke out at Lucid’s Casa Grande production facility in Arizona, Business Insider reported July 13. The two fires were connected to batteries. This week, however, the EV maker slashed its production outlook by 50 percent, citing supply-chain disruptions and “logistical challenges.” Fires related to electric vehicles are nothing new. On July 29 in Massachusetts, there was a malfunction that resulted in a battery fire, The Patriot Ledger reported. In June, an I-Pace, which is Jaguar’s first and only entirely electric vehicle, caught fire while charging, Electrek reported. Last year, General Motors had to recall its totally electric Chevrolet Bolt due to battery malfunctions that caused fires, Autoweek reported.

ISRAEL - If you are a politician looking to bolster your man-of-the-people bona fides ahead of an election, you head to Jerusalem’s Mahane Yehuda market to gladhand the shoppers and hawkers bustling about its stalls and alleyways. Last month, the market was host to pre-eminent far-right, ultra-nationalist MK Itamar Ben Gvir, a man convicted in the past of incitement to racial hatred and who, until recently, had a picture of a mass-murderer hanging in his living room. He was greeted with gusto. The crowd chanted his name and sang a lively ditty about Ben Gvir being the next prime minister. Numerous market patrons hugged, shook hands, and requested selfies with the far-right leader.

UKRAINE - The UN nuclear chief warned that Europe’s largest nuclear power plant in Ukraine “is completely out of control” and issued an urgent plea to Russia and Ukraine to quickly allow experts to visit the sprawling complex to stabilize the situation and avoid a nuclear accident. Rafael Grossi, director general of the International Atomic Energy Agency, said in an interview Tuesday with The Associated Press that the situation is getting more perilous every day at the Zaporizhzhia plant in the southeastern city of Enerhodar, which Russian troops seized in early March, soon after their February 24 invasion of Ukraine. “Every principle of nuclear safety has been violated” at the plant, he said. “What is at stake is extremely serious and extremely grave and dangerous.” The Russian capture of Zaporizhzhia renewed fears that the largest of Ukraine’s 15 nuclear reactors could be damaged, setting off another emergency like the 1986 Chernobyl accident, the world’s worst nuclear disaster, which happened about 110 kilometers (65 miles) north of the capital Kyiv.

IRAN - Iranian officials now speak openly about something long denied by Tehran as it enriches uranium at its closest-ever levels to weapons-grade material: The Islamic Republic is ready to build an atomic weapon at will. The remarks could be bluster to force more bargaining-table concessions from the US without planning to seek the bomb. Or, as analysts warn, Iran could reach a point like North Korea did some 20 years ago where it decides having the ultimate weapon outweighs any further international sanctions. All this could be put to the test Thursday as Iran, the US and the European Union prepare for a snap summit that appears to be a last-ditch effort in Vienna to revive Tehran’s tattered nuclear deal amid the new pressure. That includes one Iranian video online suggesting the country’s ballistic missiles could “turn New York into a heap of rubble from hell.” Hyperbole aside, the language taken as a whole marks a distinct verbal escalation from Tehran.

GERMANY - German Health Minister Karl Lauterbach, who is quadruple vaxxed and a strong proponent of face masks, has tested positive for COVID-19. The German Health Ministry said in a statement that Lauterbach is displaying mild symptoms and is currently working from self-isolation at home. “Lauterbach, 59 and a Social Democrat member, has received four doses of the COVID vaccine,” reports Deutsche Welle. 100 per cent safe and effective! The ministry responded by asserting that Lauterbach being infected “shows that with the highly contagious omicron variant, infection cannot be completely ruled out, even with extreme caution.” Or in other words, the vaccine is completely useless at stopping the spread of the virus, which has now weakened to become less troublesome than the common cold, but get your booster anyway because Pfizer has profit margins to reach. Now we await the obligatory statement from Lauterbach reacting to his COVID diagnosis by thanking the efficacy of the vaccine. As we previously highlighted, despite winter being months away, Germany has already announced it will re-introduce COVID restrictions anyway.

USA - Infowars leader Alex Jones got some bad news yesterday when he was ordered to pay $4.11 million in defamation damages to the parents of a child killed in the Sandy Hook Elementary School massacre. But in true Jones style, he used the platform of the trial to expose many truths. This entire debacle acts as a lens into the fallacy of our entire legal system. Throughout the trial, Jones noted how unfairly he was being treated by the judge in the case, and this particular piece of testimony highlights parts of the problem. While Jones is being forced to pay millions of dollars for making statements, there are powerful men in the world today who have paid no money nor faced any justice for participating in the sexual abuse of children. Jeffrey Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell have faced different levels of justice, but what about their client list? What about Bill Clinton? How much has he had to pay his victims? How much time has he had to spend in jail? We’re living in a society in which the truth is labeled “disinformation” while actual lies are heralded as facts.

CHINA - China could force Taiwan to surrender through an "economic boycott" that would be much "harder to defend against" because foreign forces would struggle to intervene, a former US defence secretary has said. Former US Assistant deputy defence secretary Jim Townsend told Times Radio that China has more than just military invasion in their arsenal in terms of ways in which they could overrun Taiwan. Mr Townsend claimed China could “slowly squeeze” the island nation through a “blockade”, beginning with taking a few of the “small Taiwanese islands” in the surrounding Strait. It comes as China cut ties with Washington in a number of areas by way of retaliation to Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi’s visit to Taiwan earlier this week.

USA - In the Klamath National Forest in Northern California, where the McKinney Fire has killed four people, residents have been confronted by a raging inferno and flooding rain. On Tuesday night, slow-moving severe thunderstorms unleashed downpours near the McKinney Fire, which has consumed more than 57,000 acres and is California’s largest fire of 2022. The heavy rains helped slow the growth of the blaze but triggered flooding and mudslides in parts of the burned area. As barren ground absorbs less water and rainwater can easily pick up soil and sediments, charred areas are especially prone to debris flows and mudslides. In the past week, wildfires in Idaho, Montana, Wyoming and western Nebraska have forced evacuations and threatened or destroyed structures.

GERMANY - The German government has outlined its Covid-19 restrictions for the coming fall and winter seasons, including masking requirements in hospitals and other public spaces, while authorizing local officials to take stronger action. Announced by the Health and Justice ministries on Wednesday, the draft plan mandates masks in healthcare settings such as hospitals and nursing homes, as well as for those making long-distance trips by bus or train. With exceptions for the vaccinated, visitors at hospitals and similar facilities will also be required to present a negative coronavirus test to gain access. Additional restrictions will depend on the severity of local outbreaks, with Germany’s 16 states authorized to impose a variety of “more extensive” regulations. Those include masking rules on public transit, indoor public events and in schools for students fifth grade and older, as well as compulsory testing at certain public places.

USA - Latest figure is statistically similar to previous high of 70% in 2021. Weekly churchgoers remain the primary opponents. When Gallup first polled about same-sex marriage in 1996, barely a quarter of the public (27%) supported legalizing such unions. It would take another 15 years, until 2011, for support to reach the majority level. Then in 2015, just one month before the US Supreme Court's Obergefell v Hodges decision, public support for legalizing gay marriage cracked the 60% level, and last year it reached the 70% mark for the first time. Rising national support for legal same-sex marriage reflects steady increases among most subgroups of the population, even those who have traditionally been the most resistant to gay marriage. Americans who report that they attend church weekly remain the primary demographic holdout against gay marriage, with 40% in favor and 58% opposed. Analyzing Gallup's trends since 2004, Americans who seldom or never attend church have always been mostly supportive of same-sex couples getting legally married.

UK - The UK will collapse into a year-long recession by the end of 2022 - its longest since the 2008 financial crisis and as deep as the one in the 1990s - with inflation peaking at more than 13% stoked by the soaring price of gas and fuel this winter, the Bank of England revealed in a doomsday warning. Britain's big squeeze also got even worse after the Bank raised interest rates by 0.5 per cent to 1.75 per cent - the highest single rise since 1997 - adding £1,000-a-year or more to the average non-fixed mortgage in a new 'world of pain' for homeowners. Food, fuel, gas and numerous other items are rocketing in price following the pandemic and the war in Ukraine - hitting record levels - but some economists have claimed that the BofE has been too slow to act as Britain careers towards recession. Officials on the monetary policy committee (MPC) raised the base interest rate from 1.25 per cent to 1.75 per cent as experts warned inflation could be heading for 15 per cent. The Bank predicts it will be 13 per cent.