USA - On Friday afternoon, Squad Member and Missouri Representative Cori Bush spoke at a pro-choice rally in St Louis, Missouri, after declaring the US Supreme Court to be “racist and sexist” for overturning Roe v Wade. During the event, protesters chanted, “Free abortion on demand; the people hate abortion bans!” Planned Parenthood of Missouri, which helped organize the rally, called Bush “an absolute champion for abortion access.” Bush was elected as a Missouri congresswoman in 2020 and is considered a member of the communist, anti-American “Squad.” On Friday, she repeatedly called US Supreme Court justices “unelected” as the St Louis crowd booed. She joined a chorus of far-left voices on Friday who spoke out against the US Supreme Court following the release of Justice Alito’s ruling. They were “able to make a decision to affect people whose existence they will never know, whose children and children’s children they will never know.” A woman named Maggie Olivia spoke at the event; she said her abortion was the “best choice” she ever made, calling it an “act of love.” “Most abortions are an act of love,” she said. Her comments caused the crowd to erupt in cheers and shouts of support.

GERMANY - German Navy Bids to Acquire Rostock Shipyard: The German government confirmed that it has entered a bid to acquire the Rostock shipyard that formerly belonged to the now defunct MV Werften group that financially collapsed in January 2022 after it failed to win additional loans from the government and its banks. The insolvency liquidator for the group reports that bidding for the shipyard, located in the former East Germany, will be closing today. The German Navy reportedly working with the Federal Agency for Real Estate Tasks and the Federal Office for Equipment, Information Technology and Use of the Bundeswehr, submitted a proposal to create a new maintenance and repair base in Rostock, where the naval command is also located. The new facility would be in addition to a facility in Wilhelmshaven in western Germany on the North Sea. Rostock is located in the east on the Baltic. The Department of Defense reportedly wants the new location to build its operational flexibility and strength in the region.

AUSTRALIA - If a person in Western Australia contracts Covid-19, they must remain in home quarantine for the following seven days – as do their close contacts. The police check up on their whereabouts by sending periodic text messages and require a selfie to be sent back to them within 15 minutes. The police use facial recognition technology and GPS tracking to determine if the person who took the selfie is at home. If they are not, they quickly follow up with a knock on the door and a potentially hefty fine. The G2G app by local tech start-up Genvis has been used by more than 150,000 people in the state since it was rolled out in September 2020. The same technology, albeit provided by different companies, has been piloted in the states of New South Wales, Victoria, South Australia and Tasmania. Australia stands out as the only democracy to use facial recognition technology to aid Covid-19 containment procedures while other countries were pushing back against the idea of such surveillance.

The Supreme Court has ended constitutional protections for abortion that had been in place nearly 50 years in a decision by its conservative majority to overturn Roe v Wade. Friday’s outcome is expected to lead to abortion bans in roughly half the states. The decision, unthinkable just a few years ago, was the culmination of decades of efforts by abortion opponents, made possible by an emboldened right side of the court that has been fortified by three appointees of former President Donald Trump. The ruling came more than a month after the stunning leak of a draft opinion by Justice Samuel Alito indicating the court was prepared to take this momentous step. It puts the court at odds with a majority of Americans who favored preserving Roe, according to opinion polls. Authority to regulate abortion rests with the political branches, not the courts, Alito wrote.

INDONESIA - The global food crisis sparked by the war in Ukraine will kill millions by leaving the hungriest more vulnerable to infectious diseases, potentially triggering the world's next health catastrophe, the head of a major aid organisation has warned. A Russian naval blockade of Ukraine's Black Sea ports has stopped grain shipments from the world's fourth-largest exporter of wheat and corn, raising the spectre of shortages and hunger in low-income countries. The knock-on effects of the food shortages mean many will die not only of starvation but from having weaker defences against infectious diseases due to bad nutrition, Peter Sands, executive director of the Global Fund to Fight Aids, Tuberculosis and Malaria told AFP this week. "I think we've probably already begun our next health crisis. It's not a new pathogen but it means people who are poorly nourished will be more vulnerable to the existing diseases," he said in an interview on the sidelines of a G20 health minister meeting in the Indonesian city of Yogyakarta.

UK - Avoidance among British respondents has soared the most, with 46% claiming to shun the news “sometimes” or “often” – nearly twice as many as in 2016. The BBC suffered the worst drop among all public media brands covered in the report, losing 20 percentage points since 2018. Among the reasons cited by UK residents for distrusting their media was a concern that news organizations put their own commercial and political interests ahead of that of society. Nearly three in ten (29%) global respondents complained that the information they received was untrustworthy or biased, while a significant portion said it led to arguments they would rather avoid. Another 16% simply found the news useless, reporting “there is nothing I can do with the information.” Study author Nic Newman blamed the high degree of political turmoil for the general dissatisfaction with news coverage, highlighting the high rankings of Brazil, the UK and US among the news avoiders. “Subjects that journalists consider most important, such as political crises, international conflicts and global pandemics, seem to be precisely the ones that are turning some people away,” he observed.

RUSSIA - Russia is set to deploy its deadly 'Prometheus' hypersonic nuclear system, Vladimir Putin said yesterday. The announcement comes after the Russian leader issued another chilling warning to the West. The S-500 anti-aircraft missile system is designed to bring down enemy aircraft and missiles up to an altitude of 125 miles. That brings ballistic missiles and potentially even low orbit satellites within range. The Sarmat missile can fly over 11,000 miles. Putin recently warned former countries of the Soviet Union, that a repeat of the Ukrainian invasion is on the cards if anyone defies Russia. The Russian tyrant said the powerful S-500 is already being delivered to the Russian armed forces.

SOUTH AFRICA - After a nine-year hiatus, the long-awaited Green Drop report paints a bleak picture: half of wastewater treatment works in South Africa fail to treat sewage properly and in many cases fail to treat it at all. Anthony Turton from the Centre for Environmental Management at the University of the Free State says this represents “a tsunami of human waste inundating our rivers and dams, without respite, for more than a decade”. “This decline is at both the treatment and sewer collection levels,” states the report. It is not just that wastewater treatment works are failing to properly treat sewage before releasing it back into the environment, much of it is spilling into the environment before even getting to the treatment works.

USA - Totally overlooked by the mainstream press, at the beginning of May 2022, Missouri Attorney General (AG) Eric Schmitt’s office filed a landmark lawsuit against the Biden Administration. Then, just last week, Attorney General Schmitt landed a big blow against Biden by filing a motion to prohibit the censorship conspiracy immediately. The AG’s suit against the Biden Administration also sues some other people and agencies, including:

UK - Boris Johnson has slashed his net-zero targets in a bid to tackle the cost of living crunch – by reducing the amount of biofuel produced in the UK. The Prime Minister has hit the brakes in the push for green fuel, citing concerns that the drive may contribute to spiralling inflation. Biofuel requires wheat and maize – land that Mr Johnson believes could be better used for food production to combat soaring prices. Land used globally to grow crops for the UK biofuel market could feed 3.5 million people if it was converted to food production. The PM will call on G7 leaders to review their biofuel use, arguing that it could help mitigate the global food crisis and supply chain issues exacerbated by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. Mr Johnson said: ‘While Vladimir Putin continues his futile and unprovoked war in Ukraine and cravenly blockades millions of tonnes of grain, the world’s poorest people are inching closer to starvation.' He added: ‘From emergency food aid to reviewing our own biofuel use, the UK is playing its part to address this pernicious global crisis.’ Land used globally to grow crops for the UK biofuel market could feed 3.5 million people if it was converted to food.

VATICAN - Pope Francis rejected ongoing rumors of his pending resignation from the Catholic papacy while acknowledging his health struggles. Speaking with Catholic bishops visiting from Brazil, the Pope discussed his current health woes and plans for the future, throwing water on theories about an upcoming retirement. According to the Portuguese edition of the Vatican’s official news service, Pope Francis reportedly said that resigning “does not cross his mind.” The pope also addressed his ongoing health issues and reportedly told the bishops he faces certain challenges that disrupt his daily living. Speaking to this general audience on Wednesday, the Pope discussed the limitations of being elderly, advising people to accept the body’s limitations. “When we are old, we cannot do the same things we did when we were young: The body has another pace, and we must listen to the body and accept its limits,” he said. “We all have them. I too have to use a walking stick now.” Meanwhile, Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI, who resigned in 2013, has set the record as the longest living person to have ever served as pope at age 95.

USA - Dead pool would not mean that there was no water left in the reservoir, but even before Lake Mead were to hit that point, there are concerns that water levels could fall so low that the production of hydroelectric power would be hindered. Lake Mead's water levels this week dropped to historic lows, bringing the nation's largest reservoir less than 150 feet away from "dead pool" — when the reservoir is so low that water cannot flow downstream from the dam. Lake Mead's water level on Wednesday was measured at 1,044.03 feet, its lowest elevation since the lake was filled in the 1930s. If the reservoir dips below 895 feet — a possibility still years away — Lake Mead would reach dead pool, carrying enormous consequences for millions of people across Arizona, California, Nevada and parts of Mexico.

EUROPE - The EU must not revert to using coal and neglect its climate change goals in order to replace Russian gas, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen has warned. “We have to make sure that we use this crisis to move forward and not to have a backsliding on the dirty fossil fuels,” von der Leyen told the Financial Times on Monday. “It’s a fine line and it’s not determined whether we are going to take the right turn.” Von der Leyen said EU nations need to continue “massive investment in renewables.” She added that Brussels has “emergency steps in place” to respond to the threat of decreasing supplies from Russia, such as energy conservation and prioritizing which industries receive gas. EU members such as Germany, however, have repeatedly warned that an immediate ban on Russian energy will badly hurt their economies. German Economy Minister Robert Habeck said on Sunday that coal-fired power plants have to be used instead of gas to generate electricity, and more gas must be pumped into storage facilities. “Otherwise, it will be really tight in winter,” he said. “That’s bitter, but it’s simply necessary in this situation to lower gas usage.”

HOLLAND - Dutch Climate and Energy Minister Rob Jetten has announced that the Netherlands is lifting all restrictions on coal-fired power stations to reduce natural gas consumption, while making an “urgent appeal” to businesses to save as much energy as possible ahead of the winter season. The Hague has activated the ‘early warning’ phase of its energy crisis plan, in the face of a potential shortage of natural gas this winter, Jetten said on Monday, adding that the decision had been prepared in coordination “with our European colleagues over the past few days.” “The cabinet has decided to immediately withdraw the restriction on production for coal-fired power stations,” he said, referring to the rule under which all coal-fired power plants in the Netherlands may only be operated at a maximum of 35% of their installed capacity.

USA - Kamala Harris announced the launch of a “Task Force to Address Online Harassment and Abuse” Thursday at the White House. Harris praised the task force in her remarks as a means for societal progress, saying, “No one should have to endure abuse just because they are attempting to participate in society.” A memo on the task force released by the White House condemned “gendered disinformation” and proclaimed the administration will be “developing programs and policies to address online harassment, abuse, and disinformation campaigns targeting women and LGBTQI+ individuals who are public and political figures, government and civic leaders, activists, and journalists in the United States and globally.” The memo suggested that online “harassment” has devastating costs for democracy itself by “undermining people’s ability to exercise their human rights and participate in democracy, governance, and civic life.” It went on to claim, “Online abuse and harassment, which aim to preclude women from political decision-making about their own lives and communities, undermine the functioning of democracy.”