USA - Science has become a political catchword. But what does it mean to believe in science? The British science writer Matt Ridley draws a pointed distinction between “science as a philosophy” and “science as an institution.” The former grows out of the Enlightenment, which Mr Ridley defines as “the primacy of rational and objective reasoning.” The latter, like all human institutions, is erratic, prone to falling well short of its stated principles. Mr Ridley says the Covid pandemic has “thrown into sharp relief the disconnect between science as a philosophy and science as an institution.” He asks: “If you think biological complexity can come about through unplanned emergence and not need an intelligent designer, then why would you think human society needs an ‘intelligent government’?” Science as an institution has “a naive belief that if only scientists were in charge, they would run the world well.” Perhaps that’s what politicians mean when they declare that they “believe in science.” As we’ve seen during the pandemic, science can be a source of power.

GERMANY - Ahead of Germany’s federal election on 27 September, the federal grand coalition government is pressing ahead with military rearmament. In its last sitting of the legislative session, the parliamentary budgetary committee approved spending for 27 rearmament projects with a total value of close to €20 billion at the end of June. The projects include major purchases for the navy, air force and land-based armed forces.

USA - Months before the megachurch Hillsong opened its new outpost in Atlanta, its pastor sought advice on how to build a church in a pandemic. From Facebook. The social media giant had a proposition, Sam Collier, the pastor, recalled in an interview: to use the church as a case study to explore how churches can “go further farther on Facebook.” For months Facebook developers met weekly with Hillsong and explored what the church would look like on Facebook and what apps they might create for financial giving, video capability or livestreaming. When it came time for Hillsong’s grand opening in June, the church issued a news release saying it was “partnering with Facebook” and began streaming its services exclusively on the platform. Beyond that, Mr Collier could not share many specifics — he had signed a nondisclosure agreement. “They are teaching us, we are teaching them,” he said. “Together we are discovering what the future of the church could be on Facebook.”

USA - Those that prey on elderly people just because they are easy targets should be deeply ashamed of themselves. Unfortunately, we live at a time when violent criminals are roaming the streets of our major cities in packs, and many of them seem to have no sense of honor at all. Women are being attacked, children are being attacked, and those that are advanced in age are often specifically targeted. Reading that may make your blood boil, but they don’t care what you think. Many of these criminals don’t have respect for anyone or anything, and a lot of them have hearts that are as cold as ice.

USA - The unthinkable is happening with alarming regularity at the Frankenbank JPMorgan Chase. Over the last seven years, with Chairman and CEO Jamie Dimon at the helm, JPMorgan Chase has managed to do what no other federally-insured American bank has managed to do in the history of banking in the United States. The bank has admitted to five separate felony counts brought by the US Department of Justice, while regulators took no action to remove the Board of Directors or Jamie Dimon. Now, once again, the outrageous hubris of this Board is on display. Just last fall the bank forked out over $920 million of shareholders' money to settle its fourth and fifth felony counts brought by the Department of Justice, this time for rigging the precious metals and US Treasury market. Now, in the dog days of summer, rarely a time for bonuses on Wall Street, the JP Morgan Chase board announced on July 20 that it is giving Dimon 1.5 million stock options which, according to a specialist cited at Bloomberg News, have a total value of $50 million on paper.

CHINA - A senior Chinese diplomat on Monday bluntly warned the visiting American deputy secretary of state, Wendy R Sherman, that the Biden administration’s strategy of pursuing both confrontation and cooperation with Beijing was sure to fail. China’s vice foreign minister, Xie Feng, told Ms Sherman that the United States’ “competitive, collaborative and adversarial rhetoric” was a “thinly veiled attempt to contain and suppress China,” according to a summary of Mr Xie’s comments that the Chinese foreign ministry sent to reporters. Mr Xie’s remarks underscored the anger that has been building in China toward the United States, undermining the chances that the approach will work.

RUSSIA - Vladimir Putin has bragged his war machine can now deliver an "unpreventable strike" against its enemies as he paraded his naval might. The Russian strongman’s boast comes days after military officials announced tests of advanced new hypersonic weapons — from an arsenal Putin has described as "invincible". Putin's chilling warning follows an incident in the Black Sea in June when Russia said it had fired warning shots and dropped bombs in the path of a British warship HMS Defender to chase it out of Crimean waters. Speaking at a parade of warships in St Petersburg yesterday, the president said: "The Russian navy today has everything it needs to guarantee the protection of our country and our national interests. We are capable of detecting any underwater, above-water, airborne enemy and, if required, carry out an unpreventable strike against it." Putin added Russia had secured its place among the world's leading naval powers, including by developing "the latest hypersonic precision weapons still unrivalled in the world".

USA - The United States will not lift any existing travel restrictions "at this point" due to concerns over the highly transmissible COVID-19 Delta variant and the rising number of US coronavirus cases, a White House official told Reuters. The decision, which comes after a senior level White House meeting late Friday, means the long-running travel restrictions that have barred much of the world's population from the United States since 2020 will not be lifted in the short term. "Given where we are today with the Delta variant, the United States will maintain existing travel restrictions at this point," the official told Reuters, citing the spread of the Delta variant in the United States and abroad. "Driven by the Delta variant, cases are rising here at home, particularly among those who are unvaccinated and appear likely continue to increase in the weeks ahead."

USA - Should nations let their enemies purchase land within their own borders? You’d likely give a resounding ‘no’ to this question, correct? And yet, a former Chinese general with alleged ties to Chinese concentration camps recently bought an airstrip in Texas. And this isn’t just some random ranch in the middle of nowhere. It is 200 square miles (130,000 acres) of land between one of the most active Air Force bases in the US and the border of Mexico. As the world is being fear-mongered about “variants,” this is happening right under American noses. The former Chinese General purchased the land to allegedly build wind farms. The name of the property purchased by the Chinese firm is called the Morning Star Ranch. Should We Be Concerned About the Morning Star Ranch? Well. Perhaps, yes. “You’ve got a former People’s Liberation Army general billionaire who has bought over 130,000 acres of Texan land, including a giant wind farm in an area where there isn’t particularly a lot of wind but happens to be right beside a very sensitive US military installation,” Bass said.

USA - Lockdowns have severely damaged children’s mental health, studies across the globe show. Amid the risk of new restrictions due to the Delta variant, RT asked experts what can be done to prevent aggravating their suffering. With the Covid Delta variant spreading across the globe, the concept of ‘pandemic fatigue’ is back in the headlines. One by one, countries are bringing back restrictions that everybody hoped were lifted forever. According to the World Health Organization, pandemic fatigue is “an expected and natural response to a prolonged public health crisis” not just related to the virus itself, but to the “invasive measures with unprecedented impacts on the daily lives of everyone.” In this context, reimposed restrictive measures would not be “unprecedented,” but would this make them less harmful? Only if we draw conclusions from our recent experience, psychologists suggest, and prepare ourselves and our loved ones for the difficulties to come. “We don’t know how long the pandemic will last,” admitted Professor Lavigne. “This feeling of uncertainty is developing anxiety in both children and their parents.”

ASIA - The last couple of years of military build-up and standoff between China and the United States in the South China Sea has resulted in fears of a new dangerous arms race, as smaller nations in the region rapidly bolster their defenses in order to avoid being "caught in the middle" which would result in having to be overly dependent on one side of the tensions. A new Reuters report chronicling the growth in regional missile stockpiles says China is "mass producing its DF-26, a multipurpose weapon with a range of up to 4,000 kilometres, while the United States is developing new weapons aimed at countering Beijing in the Pacific." This has resulted in other countries once on the sidelines now "buying or developing their own new missiles, driven by security concerns over China and a desire to reduce their reliance on the United States" - the report underscores. "Before the decade is out, Asia will be bristling with conventional missiles that fly farther and faster, hit harder, and are more sophisticated than ever before - a stark and dangerous change from recent years, analysts, diplomats, and military officials say," the report adds.

UK - The UK’s largest microchip factory, which has been taken over by a firm backed by Communist China, has reportedly received millions in funding from the British government, including military research grants. Newport Wafer Fab (NWF), which was forced into selling its factory to Chinese-owned Nexperia after failing to meet its debt obligations earlier this month, has been reported to have been granted large-scale contracts from the British government’s innovation agency, Innovate UK. A whistleblower told CNBC that the semiconductor firm had received around £55 million ($75 million) to develop next-generation technologies, including defence contracts. Following widespread backlash and concern expressed about Communist China taking control of what many would consider a critical technology factory, Prime Minister Boris Johnson ordered a review of the sale under national security laws.

LEBANON - On the highway into Beirut the other day, we drove past a petrol queue that was more than two miles long. On and on it went, the drivers sweating and swearing in brutal heat. Some had run out of fuel while they waited, having to push their cars when the queue inched forwards. There were people on laptops working from their cars during the day-long wait. Petrol queues are an everyday fact of life in Lebanon, but this was something else. Seeing that I was a foreigner, a frustrated driver gestured at the long line ahead of him and shouted: ‘Lebanon!’ He was summing up the fury and disgust felt by the Lebanese at what has happened to their country.

USA - Our planet is going through extreme changes that are unlike anything we have ever seen before, and global weather patterns are going completely insane as a result. Last winter, record cold temperatures were being shattered all over the globe and we were witnessing snowfall totals that were absolutely crazy in many areas. Now summer has arrived in the northern hemisphere, and extreme weather events are making headlines every single day. This month alone, we have witnessed apocalyptic flooding in western Europe and China, a massive fire in Oregon has burned an area larger than the entire city of Los Angeles, and Brazil has announced to the world that it will have crop losses that are “historic” in nature. All throughout history there have been natural disasters, but these days we are faced with an endless series of droughts, floods, heat waves, mudslides, wildfires and crop failures. If you think that there is an “easy solution” to this crisis, you are just being delusional. Weather patterns are permanently shifting, and nothing will ever be the same again.

USA - Dr Martin Picard is an associate professor of behavioral medicine at Columbia University Irving Medical Center, specializing in both psychiatry and neurology. Together, expertise in these two fields suits one well to understanding the essence of what makes one human. Picard is particularly knowledgable about mitochondria, a structure found within nearly all cells that have a nucleus. They provide most of the chemical energy that cells use in their various biochemical tasks, and are sometimes likened to batteries.