CHINA - Beijing has responded to the UN nuclear watchdog’s controversial support for plans by Japan to dump contaminated wastewater from the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant into the Pacific Ocean by arguing that those who believe the water is safe should drink it and swim in it. Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Wang Wenbin addressed the issue during a press briefing on Tuesday, when he was asked about recent statements by International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) Director-General Rafael Mariano Grossi touting the safety of Fukushima’s wastewater. He mocked Grossi’s claims that the water was even safe for drinking or swimming. “If some people think that the nuclear-contaminated water from Fukushima is safe to drink or swim in, we suggest that Japan save the nuclear-contaminated water for these people to drink or swim in instead of releasing it into the sea and causing widespread concerns internationally,” Wang said.

CANADA - The number of wildfires in Canada classified as “out of control” is approaching 600, according to a national monitor. The country is experiencing its worst wildfire season in decades. According to the Canadian Interagency Forest Fire Centre (CIFFC), there were over 900 active wildfires in the country on Monday, with 599 of them labeled out of control. Another 104 were “being held” by firefighters, while 204 were considered under control. British Columbia is the worst-affected province, accounting for a third of active fires, according to CIFFC statistics. The blazes have devastated 10.7 million hectares (26 million acres) nationwide during this fire season, with over 4,200 outbreaks reported this year. The area is the largest since the monitor started compiling statistics in the 1980s. The previous record was set in 1995, when over 7 million hectares (17 million acres) burned out in Canada.

UK - Brexit leader Nigel Farage had his bank account revoked in the end of June, as he revealed in a video. Now Farage has revealed the reason: According to the “Stasi-style” file Coutts bank compiled on him, he was targeted for his political views, including alleged “racism”, “Brexit” and interviewing vax-skeptical top tennis star Novak Djoković.

UK - Philip Miller, the executive chairman of Adventure Island, told the Daily Mail that there had been “confusion” about “what we would allow or not.” “We humbly apologise to all of our loyal customers for any offence caused,” Miller said. “There was confusion between us and the act as to what we would allow or not as it were. The grinding act was most definitely a nonstarter as we are ostensibly a family park and that is just not family entertainment.” “Rest assured we will not be rebooking this act or participate in any future PRIDE celebrations it’s just not for us, we tried to be inclusive but it has backfired on us,” Miller added.

FRANCE - Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s state visit to France as chief guest on Bastille Day on July 14 further consolidates the strategic ties between India and France. The French gesture flows from a growing recognition of India’s rising international stature and its high economic growth. Already the world’s fifth largest economy, India is expected to be the third largest by 2027. India’s considerable military potential and expanding defense sector offers opportunities for defense sales and collaborations. France, always a significant defense partner of India's, is now in second place after Russia in New Delhi's rankings. India-France economic ties being far below potential, Paris is seeking more economic opportunities with, as well as more investment from, India. The country’s young population, with some general skillset development, can meet the manpower needs of aging industrial economies. All in all, a productive visit that seeks to promote shared interests in an increasingly fractured global environment.

USA - We are now being told that producing food is bad for the planet. To "save" the planet, globalists insist, farms must be shut down across the globe. Under the guise of reducing "methane emissions," thirteen nations have signed a pledge to engineer global famine by gutting agricultural production and shutting down farms. Announced earlier this year by the Global Methane Hub -- a cabal of crisis engineers who exploit public panic to destroy the world food supply -- those thirteen nations are: Argentina, Australia, Brazil, Burkina Faso, Chile, Czech Republic, Ecuador, Germany, Panama, Peru, Spain, the United States, and Uruguay.

USA - It was just a matter of time before the grasshoppers joined the party. In 2023, global crops have been devastated by plague after plague. Farmers in the US and elsewhere have had to deal with seemingly endless drought, unprecedented heat, nightmarish flooding and horrifying outbreaks of disease. In fact, citrus greening disease is one of the primary reasons why the orange harvest in Florida is only going to be about half as large as it was last year.

GERMANY - Germany is confident it will have the best equipped army division amongst European NATO allies in 2025, Army Chief Alfons Mais told Reuters, as countries are scrambling to gear up their troops in the wake of Russia's invasion of Ukraine. At the moment, Berlin does not have a single combat-ready division, a military unit comprising more than 20,000 troops. Mais acknowledged that it will be ambitious to supply the division with enough ammunition by 2025 at a time when Western countries are supplying huge amounts of shells to Kyiv, further depleting stocks severely run down since the end of the Cold War.

GERMANY - In a significant development for the German Armed Forces, sensor specialist HENSOLDT has been contracted to supply six cutting-edge TRML-4D radars as part of Diehl Defence's IRIS-T SLM air defense missile system. The multimillion-euro order will address a critical capability gap and pave the way for the European Sky Shield Initiative (ESSI). The Bundeswehr is set to receive the first system next year. The TRML-4D radar, utilizing state-of-the-art digital technology, will play a vital role in detecting, tracking, and classifying various aerial targets. It places emphasis on rapidly identifying small, fast-moving, low-flying, and maneuvering cruise missiles, aircraft, and helicopters. The system boasts an impressive capability to detect and track up to 1,500 targets within a 250 km radius. Multiple TRML-4D systems are slated to equip the Ukrainian air defense under a separate agreement.

ETHIOPIA - The nation of Ethiopia has announced it will make the transition to mandatory digital IDs for all citizens, with the chief enforcement tool being the major banks. Using a World Bank-supported digital ID system with standards also approved by an eight-nation working group within the United Nations, all citizens of Ethiopia will need to have a digital ID in order to use banking services in the country by 2025. This is just the latest evidence that banks are driving the digital identity agenda. So if you want a bank account or wish to access government benefits, you will need a digital ID in Ethiopia. This is the plan for all nations. Eventually, you will need the digital ID to buy and sell and log onto the internet. Ethiopia follows Canada, Nigeria, China, Finland, Germany, Japan, Norway, Sweden, South Korea, and a host of other countries that have already rolled out biometric digital identities, some mandatory and some still voluntary.

USA - The veteran US diplomat Henry Kissinger has met China’s defence minister in Beijing. According to a readout on Tuesday from the Chinese defence ministry, Li Shangfu said “friendly communication” between China and the US had been “destroyed” because “some people in the United States did not meet China halfway”. Kissinger said he was a “friend of China”, according to the readout. “Neither the United States nor China can afford to treat the other as an adversary. If the two countries go to war, it will not lead to any meaningful results for the two peoples,” the Chinese statement reported Kissinger as saying. Kissinger’s visit, which had not been publicised, is outside the official roster of meetings. It is almost exactly 52 years since his secret visit to Beijing in July 1971, which paved the way for Richard Nixon, the US president at the time, to normalise relations between the US and China.

UK - 'Give me a child until he is seven years old,' said the Jesuit priest St Ignatius Loyola, 'and I will show you the man.' The Collins Dictionary of Quotations cites a more chilling version of those words, as an old English proverb: 'Give me a child for the first seven years and he is mine forever.' Inspirational message — or a warning against indoctrination? The question has renewed relevance this week after a Church of England diocese revealed it is teaching a controversial 'pyramid of white supremacy' in its primary schools. Children's minds are uniquely impressionable.

SOUTH KOREA - The death toll from devastating floods following South Korea’s heaviest rains in a decade has risen to 40, after four additional bodies were recovered from a highway underpass near the central city of Cheongju. There were also at least nine people still missing as of Monday, and dozens more were injured by landslides and other effects of the flooding rains, according to the South Korean Interior Ministry. President Yoon Suk-yeol, who returned to Seoul on Monday following a surprise visit to Ukraine, said the disaster was worsened by his government’s failure to follow disaster-response policies in the most vulnerable areas. More than 600 millimeters (24 inches) of rain has fallen in the past week in parts of South Korea. More heavy rains were predicted, falling at rates of up to 40 millimeters per hour, in some of the hardest-hit areas.

GERMANY - Chancellor Olaf Scholz is struggling to persuade Germans he can handle the litany of troubles looming over the country he has led since 2021. With his coalition government beset by squabbling, the shadow of a recession lingering, and the industrial base underpinning its economic model under threat, the Social Democrat who won office after a hapless campaign by the Christian Democrat Union is on the back foot again. The sense of drift has opened the door to a surge in far-right support, eroding a political consensus underpinning almost eight decades of prosperity since World War II. The country led by Scholz finds itself in one of its most unsettling moments since reunification in 1989.

INDIA - The BRICS alliance with Brazil, Russia, India, China & South Africa is planning to float a new currency to settle international trade payments to challenge the global reserve status of the US dollar. The bloc of the five nations is likely to jointly decide on floating a new BRICS currency during its next summit in August, 2023 to be held at Johannesburg in South Africa. Although all other countries constituting BRICS, including Brazil, Russia, China, and South Africa seem to be on the side of issuance of a common BRICS currency, India seems to be the only country that has not shown interest in the plans to launch a new currency.