YEMEN - Abdel-Malek al-Houthi, leader of the Iran-backed Houthi insurgents of Yemen, said on Wednesday his forces would attack US warships in the Red Sea if Operation Prosperity Guardian uses military force against the Houthis. “We will not stand idly by if the Americans are tempted to escalate further and commit foolishness by targeting our country or waging war against it,” the terrorist leader railed in a speech televised by Houthi media. “Any American targeting of our country will be targeted by us, and we will make American battleships, interests, and navigation a target for our missiles, drones, and military operations,” he said. “As long as the Americans want to enter into a direct war with us, they should know that we are not those who fear them and that they are facing an entire people,” he warned. Even the most capable allied ships and crews are struggling to provide security for the massive amount of shipping that passes through the Red Sea and Bab el-Mandeb Strait, and the Houthis are much better at attacking ships that cannot fight back.

USA - Christian leaders are speaking out after Pope Francis granted the green light Monday for Roman Catholic priests to bless same-sex couples. The Rev Franklin Graham, president of the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association and Samaritan’s Purse, posted a no-holds-barred criticism of the pope, warning that “blessings” on homosexual couples won’t “save you from the judgment of God.” “Pope Francis has now approved Catholic priests’ blessing’ same-sex couples,” Graham wrote. “But none of us, including the pope, has the right to ‘bless’ what God calls sin. ‘Woe to those who call evil good and good evil…’ (Isaiah 5:20).”

USA - America’s second-largest Protestant denomination is in the final stages of a slow-motion rupture that has so far seen the departure of a quarter of the nation’s roughly 30,000 United Methodist churches, according to the denomination’s news agency. At issue for Methodists is the question of ordaining and marrying LGBTQ people, a topic that has splintered many other Protestant denominations and which Methodists have been debating for years. In 2019, Methodist leaders opened a window for any congregations to leave over “reasons of conscience,” in most cases allowing them to take their property and assets with them in a clean break if they received approval to depart by December 31, 2023. Many conservative congregations have done just that. “It’s the biggest denominational schism ever,” said Ryan Burge, a political scientist at Eastern Illinois University.

SWITZERLAND - Leading advisor to the WEF, Yuval Noah Harari, "predicts" that rapid advances in computing technology will "make humans redundant", creating a "massive class of useless people" who will need to be kept "happy" with "drugs and computer games". "Now, we see the creation of a new massive class of useless people. As computers become better and better in more and more fields, there is a distinct possibility that computers will outperform us in most tasks, and will make humans redundant. And then the big political and economic question of the 21st century will be, what do we need humans for? Or at least, what do we need so MANY humans for?"

CANADA - "Children between six months and four years of age should receive two doses if they have not previously been vaccinated with a Covid-19 vaccine." Health Canada's chief medical advisor, Dr Supriya Sharma, announces Health Canada's recent approval of an updated Moderna mRNA "vaccine" for Canadians six months of age and older.

USA - Google has announced its largest ever purge of non-mainstream content ahead of the 2024 US presidential election. According to Google and YouTube, they are both planning to censor content they deem to be “harmful” to voters in the run-up to the election. In its announcement, Google declared that it already censors content that it deems to be “manipulated media” or “hate and harassment” – two extremely subjective terms that have been abused by Big Tech to justify the unconstitutional mass censorship of Americans.

USA - In a six-part series on Medscape, “Treating Obesity: Confronting a New Normal,” doctors from the Harvard, Yale, and Rutger medical schools made the case that obesity doesn’t stem from behavioral issues. One of the doctors, Yale School of Medicine professor Ania Jastreboff, said that the traditional understanding of eating less and exercising more had no effect on reversing or preventing obesity. “Obesity is not a personal choice,” said Jastreboff. “For years, the advice was that our patients needed to ‘eat less and move more.’ That does not work.”

LITHUANIA - Germany and Lithuania on Monday signed a roadmap for what is set to become the largest deployment of German troops on foreign soil in the modern era. Under the plan, the 5,000-strong brigade will be stationed less than 20km (12 miles) from the border with Belarus, Moscow’s key ally. Lithuania also shares a border with Russia’s westernmost exclave, Kaliningrad.

NORTH KOREA - The long-range missile test comes after Pyongyang said US-South Korean drills were a “preview of a nuclear war” . North Korea has test-fired a long-range intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) that is capable of striking any target in the mainland United States, Japanese defense officials said. It is Pyongyang’s latest missile launch to have drawn international condemnation as tensions flare on the Korean Peninsula. The missile, launched on Monday at 8:24am local time (11:24pm Sunday GMT), traveled for 73 minutes and covered about 1,000km (621 miles), Tokyo’s defense ministry said. It reached a maximum altitude of more than 6,000km (3,730 miles) and fell into waters west of Hokkaido island, outside of Japan’s exclusive economic zone. Japan’s parliamentary vice-minister of defense, Shingo Miyake, said the missile had a potential range of 15,000km (9,300 miles), “in which case the whole of the US territory would be within range.”

ISRAEL - The proposal calls for a week-long pause in fighting in exchange for the release of 40 hostages. Israel is ready to briefly halt its military operation in the Gaza Strip if the militant group Hamas releases more hostages, Axios and multiple Israeli media reported on Tuesday, citing officials and sources with knowledge of the ongoing negotiations. The proposal was delivered through Qatari mediators and reportedly envisages a seven-day ceasefire in exchange for the release of up to 40 women, elderly and sick people, according to Israeli Channel 12. Hamas requested a complete cessation of hostilities, but according to the broadcaster, the demand is unacceptable to the Israeli leadership, which had vowed to continue the war until the Palestinian militant group is neutralized.

UK - A London psychiatrist who spent 12 years working with children at the United Kingdom's government-funded Tavistock gender clinic is warning that "transitioning" patients to a new gender identity isn't the answer to gender dysphoria. Countries embracing "gender-affirming care" risk needless mass sterilization, Dr Az Hakeem told The Epoch Times. He is the author of the new book "Detrans: When Transition is Not the Solution." "I say affirmation therapy is not therapy — it's grooming" them to accept the idea they were born in the wrong body, said Dr Hakeem, a fellow of the Royal College of Psychiatrists and honorary associate clinical professor at University College London Medical School.

UK - Activist teachers have vowed to defy Government guidance urging them to tell parents if a child says they want to change gender, The Mail on Sunday can reveal. The recommendation will be included in long-awaited transgender advice for schools expected to be published tomorrow. But some teachers warn they will refuse to follow it and are willing to be sacked rather than comply. Their defiance came in response to a query on an internet teaching forum asking what they thought about 'the Government proposing guidance for schools to potentially outing trans kids/kids questioning their identity/gender norms, to their parents.' One wrote: 'I'm a gay teacher and I'd refuse to do this if a child came to me in confidence.'

UK - Liverpool will introduce 'bleeding control cabinets' containing tourniquets and wound sealers to city streets in an effort to stem deaths from a shocking rise in knife crime across Britain. Liverpool has installed 'stab survival cupboards' to help reverse the rising trend of knife crime-related deaths in the UK, the first initiative of its kind in Britain. The red containers hold medical equipment, including scissors, gloves, tourniquets and chest wound sealants, and will be accessible using codes provided by calling 999. They are designed to be used by both members of the public who witness stabbings, and emergency services, including paramedics and police officers.

MIDDLE EAST - Global supply chains could face severe disruption as a result of the world's biggest shipping companies diverting journeys away from the Red Sea. Attacks by Houthi rebels in Yemen on commercial vessels in recent weeks have resulted in many firms deciding to avoid one of the world's busiest shipping lanes. The Houthi group has declared its support for Hamas and has said it is targeting ships travelling to Israel, though it is not clear if all the ships that have been attacked were actually heading to Israel.

MIDDLE EAST - After a rise in attacks by the Iran-backed Houthis, the world's largest shipping firms are staying away from the Red Sea and Suez Canal. Could the world see a repeat of the post-COVID supply chain crisis? The journey will take more than a week longer and will add about 3,500 nautical miles (6,482 kilometers) to the journey. The Suez Canal, which connects the Red Sea to the Mediterranean, is the shortest route between Europe and Asia. About 12% of global shipping traffic normally transits the waterway.