USA - The Satanic Temple (TST) is planning on hosting an “After School Satan Club” back-to-school event at a Pennsylvania high school next month. On Tuesday, Officials from Northern York County School District approved the event to be hosted at Northern High School in Dillsburg, Pennsylvania, Fox 43 reported. Parents and residents expressed their staunch opposition to the organization hosting an event in the community back in April. “They already took God out of schools now they’re going to let Satan in, it’s just crazy,” said Perry County Resident Jennifer McAllister back in April, according to Fox 34. “There is a lot of evil already in this world, so to allow it to come into our school and our community is not OK,” another parent, Laura Vangeli, said at the time via WHP. A spokesman from the temple said the event should be viewed similarly to religious freedom law. “We’re talking about upholding fundamental pillars of democracy and the First Amendment,” said Lucien Graves, a co-founder of TST.

USA - Masked Antifa members armed with AR-15 rifles and handguns showed up to guard what was billed as a “kid-friendly” drag show at a North Texas distillery. Reports indicate the show contained partial nudity and sexualized minors. BlazeTV producer Kris Cruz tweeted photos of a group of mask-wearing Antifa members standing guard with AR-15 rifles at a “kid-friendly” drag show in Roanoke, Texas. Cruz reported at least nine of the members carrying AR-15s. Cruz and BlazeTV host Sara Gonzales tweeted photos showing alleged Antifa members posted in sniper positions near the event’s location. The Anderson Distillery and Grill hosted a “Barrel Babes Drag Brunch” on Sunday afternoon, according to their Facebook post. Sara Gonzales and journalist Tayler Hansen tweeted a video from the event showing the drag show taking place in the presence of more than 20 very young children.

UK - Britain's Royal Navy suffered a major setback after the HMS Prince of Wales broke down just one day after leaving Portsmouth to set sail for the US. The 65,000-tonne warship was on its way to begin a four-month deployment to America. The vessel and its crew are scheduled to take part in training drills with the US military and the Royal Canadian Navy in a programme with F-35B jets and unscrewed systems. However, the £3 billion vessel suffered an "emerging mechanical issue" near the Isle of Wight, according to a Royal Navy spokesperson. HMS Prince of Wales had to delay its departure on Friday from Portsmouth Naval Base, Hampshire, by a day because of a technical issue. There have been reports that the current issue revolves around damage to the starboard propeller shaft. HMS Prince of Wales is Britain's largest warship and NATO's flagship carrier. It has been plagued by technical problems, which have impacted its ability to carry out its role. The warship got stranded in Portsmouth at the end of 2020 after flooding in its engine room damaged the electrics.

USA - Two American warships sailed through the Taiwan Strait early Sunday, in the first such naval exercise since House Speaker Nancy Pelosi's visit to Taiwan earlier this month, which outraged China's government. The USS Antietam and USS Chancellorsville cruisers are making a routine transit through the Strait, which usually takes about 12 hours, according to a statement from the Navy's 7th Fleet, which is headquartered in Japan. “The ship’s transit through the Taiwan Strait demonstrates the United States’ commitment to a free and open Indo-Pacific. The United States military flies, sails and operates anywhere international law allows,” the statement said. Pelosi's trip to Taiwan earlier this month angered Beijing, which considers the island to be a breakaway Chinese territory and has not ruled out using military force to bring it under its control.

EUROPE - The economic powerhouses of the European Union, France and Germany, both set records on Friday for electricity prices, as the West’s sanctions war with Russia continue to bite. This time last year the cost of electricity per megawatt-hour (MWh) in both France and Germany sat at around 85 euros. On Friday, both countries set record highs, with the cost climbing by at least 1,000 per cent from last year to €850 in Germany and over €1,000 in France, Le Monde reports. The Russian economy has seemingly weathered the sanctions far better than expected. The energy crisis is showing no sign of abating, with futures traders already trading French energy prices at a staggering 1,600 euros per megawatt-hour for December. Warnings have emerged from the two leading economic engines of the European Union that widespread unrest will result from the rising cost of energy.

ISRAEL - Israel’s right-wing Jewish voter base has grown from 46 percent before the April 2019 election to 62% now, ahead of November’s vote, according to an analysis of self-reported political affiliation by the Israel Democracy Institute. The growth has been mostly at the expense of the political center, although the left has also taken a dip. Despite having a growing right-wing ideological majority among Jewish citizens, Israeli politics have yet to stabilize around a solid four-year government. The right-religious bloc led by former prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu is polling most strongly, but the November 1 Knesset race is still predicted to end up indecisive.

USA - Scientists at Michigan State University say they have found a way to recycle wind turbine blades into gummy bears, nappies, and other everyday items. The fibreglass blades of a wind turbine have proved difficult to repurpose, with many ending up in landfill at the end of their life cycle, leading to concerted efforts to find ways to recycle them. But Michigan State scientists say they have created a new kind of turbine resin which can be continuously recast into new blades, or other materials including plastic, car taillights, kitchen countertops, and even nappies and candy. Researchers developed a type of composite thermoplastic resin which can be dissolved at the end of its use cycle and “used over and over again in an infinite loop”, according to John Dorgan, PhD, a researcher at Michigan State University. The research may help address the stubborn wastage problem of a renewables-based economy, amid global projections that 40 million tonnes of wind blade waste could end up in landfill by the middle of the century. “The beauty of our resin system is that at the end of its use cycle, we can dissolve it, and that releases it from whatever matrix it’s in so that it can be used over and over again,” says Dorgan.

PAKISTAN - Pakistan's foreign minister said the calamitous floods gripping the country are 'a catastrophe on a scale that I have never seen' as the death toll soared above 1,000 and an area the size of Britain faced going underwater. Tens of millions of Pakistanis have been forced to flee their homes as entire villages have vanished, with dramatic footage capturing hotel collapses, helicopter rescues and narrow escapes. Foreign minister Bilawal Bhutto Zardari said this morning from his home in flood-ravaged province Sindh, south-eastern Pakistan: 'Around me is just water, water and more water. There's not much dry land to be found. We've suffered a devastating monsoon [with] floods from the sky that have been going on since the end of June. It is a catastrophe on a scale that I have never seen before', he told the BBC. He added: 'We've experienced floods and monsoons before but this has really engulfed us all.'

USA - A wildfire burning in southwest Oregon has grown to 8,404 acres, according to a Sunday update by fire officials, nearly double the acreage the blaze had consumed a day prior. Approximately 740 personnel are now battling the Rum Creek fire after officials from the Northwest 13 Incident Management Team assumed command of the response Sunday morning along with two state agencies from the Oregon State Fire Marshal and the Oregon Department of Forestry. The blaze has led to at least one death: Logan Taylor, a 25-year-old wildland firefighter, died last week after being struck by a tree while battling the fire, officials said.

EUROPE - The fallout of the sanctions imposed on Russia over the conflict in Ukraine has turned the European Union into “the third world of the Western world economies,” a senior contributor to Forbes magazine has claimed. “These days, the European stock market is the worst in the Western world,” under-performing the US by ten basis points, Kenneth Rapoza pointed out in his article on Tuesday. “The most significant headwind” for such a state of affairs has been the “Russian sanctions on energy as punishment for its war with Ukraine,” Rapoza insisted. Those restrictions “set off a massive commodity price spike that’s hurt the European economy the most,” he added. The author advised investors against putting their money into the bloc, at least until Brussels figures out how to compensate for the massive reduction in energy supply from Russia, and how to mitigate the harmful impact of its own sanctions.

BELARUS - Belarus's warplanes have been upgraded to carry nuclear weapons, the country's authoritarian leader President Alexander Lukashenko has said, adding it has 'selected targets' in the West if provoked. President Lukashenko, a staunch ally of Russian President Vladimir Putin, warned the US and its allies against carrying out a 'provocation' against Belarus. He said the modification of the SU-24 planes followed his meeting with Putin in June, when he offered to make Belarusian combat aircraft nuclear-capable at Russian factories and to help train pilots. The Kremlin had no immediate comment on Lukashenko's statement.

UK - It’s just before 8am on a Monday morning and my A&E department is heaving. I’ve been on-call all weekend — I’m shattered — but I don’t have time to dwell on it. Our traffic-light system is a sea of red: red for staffing, meaning we’re low on doctors and nurses; red for capacity, meaning we have far too many patients; and red for acuity, meaning a terrifying number of those patients are severely ill. Some of them are dependent on a ventilator. Some won’t make it to the end of the day, let alone the end of the week.

USA - The parents of a ten-year-old model who reportedly identifies as transgender say they plan on having their child undergo transgender surgeries at age 16. Noella McMaher, who’s been hyped in the media as the world’s “youngest transgender model,” was socially transitioned at the young age of four and had a legal name-change by age seven. Dee McMaher, the child’s mother, told Chicago Parent in 2019 that Noella would, in the next few years, start puberty blockers and then begin a physical transition with gender surgeries at age 16, REDUXX highlighted this week.

NETHERLANDS - The Hague in the Netherlands has revealed it will ask the EU to grant it a temporary exemption from anti-Russia sanctions. The city, known as the seat of the International Criminal Court, reportedly wants to keep buying natural gas from Russian energy giant Gazprom until an alternative supplier is found. According to Reuters news agency, The Hague city council outlined its plans on Thursday, pointing out that the municipal authorities held an EU-wide tender in June and July but failed to find a replacement for Russian gas. EU sanctions, imposed in response to Russia’s military offensive against Ukraine, mean that all governments and public bodies in the bloc must terminate their existing contracts with Russian companies by October 10.

CHINA - China’s power grid is still under duress amidst the worst heatwave the country has seen in half a century. Now, electric carmakers Tesla and Nio are shutting down some of their charging stations in Sichuan province to save energy and help keep the lights on in Chinese homes, Bloomberg reports. Owners of EVs from Tesla and Nio report that they first learned about certain charging stations in the city of Chengdu going offline through charger-locating apps. Charging is being suspended as far away as Chongqing, a city just under 200 miles east of the Sichuan capitol. Sichuan’s power production has plummeted during the heatwave. The province relies on hydroelectric dams, but rivers in the region are at dangerously low water levels. The reduced hydropower output prompted city officials to shut down factories making microchips and those that process lithium for EV batteries, too.