USA - Fascism has arrived in America, that insidious and pernicious combination of privately-owned companies operating in conjunction with and at the direction of a government that has no interest in free elections, only in the means of gaining and expanding its power over every aspect of our daily lives, while making these companies rich as they help enslave us to the deep state. Jen Psaki [White House press secretary] …admitted the lie that tech tyrants like Facebook, Google, and Twitter are private companies that can do what they want, protected from liability lawsuits by Section 230, confessing that they are state actors directed by the Biden administration to suppress free expression and any opinion deemed hurtful to Team Biden to influence, manipulate and steal elections. Psaki said all social media platforms should ban you if you spread misinformation on one outlet... Who determines what “trusted content” is? Someone at the Ministry of Truth. Someone should tell Biden, Psaki and their unindicted co-conspirators at Facebook, Google, and Twitter that Orwell’s “1984” was a warning not an instruction manual.

UK - Ministers' plans for new 'Online Safety' laws could threaten freedom of speech by making Facebook and Google the 'arbiters of truth', peers warned today. An influential cross-party committee cautioned that 'legitimate debate' is at risk of being 'stifled' by the way major platforms filter out 'misinformation'. The government's proposals set out that tech companies will be expected to state in their rules the types of content they consider legal but 'harmful', and enforce those policies. But the Lords’ Communications and Digital Committee branded that idea flawed because Facebook and Google had 'monopolised' the online public space. 'The benefits of freedom of expression online mustn't be curtailed by companies such as Facebook and Google, too often guided by their commercial and political interests than the rights and wellbeing of their users,' said chairman Lord Gilbert. The report said: ‘We are concerned that platforms’ approaches to misinformation have stifled legitimate debate, including between experts. Platforms should not seek to be arbiters of truth. Posts should only be removed in exceptional circumstances.’

UK - New pictures today showed supermarket aisles already empty of cheese, meat and fresh vegetables as an expert warned food chains were 'starting to fail' due to staff shortages exacerbated by the 'pingdemic' [the UK Track and Trace system for informing people they must isolate after coming into contact with someone testing positive for Covid] - and one police force struggled to answer 999 calls. Sainsbury's, Tesco, Lidl and Morrisons stores in Manchester, Bristol, Edinburgh and Southampton were seen with significant gaps on the shelves in sections including frozen fish, pizzas, bottled water, ice creams and packaged salads. Today at Prime Minister's Questions, Mr Johnson apologised to businesses for the disruption they had experienced, but urged people to stick with the rules until they change because 'isolation is a vital tool of our defence'. The latest figures show more than 500,000 people in England and Wales were asked to isolate by the NHS app in the week up to July 1. The recent days have seen delays on the Tube, trains and the cancellation of bin collections.

ISRAEL - Former US Ambassador to the UN Nikki Haley said Sunday: "Iran is the sugar daddy of Hamas. The 11-day war that Israel just fought wasn't just with Hamas. Israel was fighting against Iranian weapons, Iranian money and Iranian-trained terrorists, and everyone knows it. We all want a better life for Palestinians. It's the leaders of Hamas who want Palestinians to suffer because it strengthens their grip on power. So let me be clear, Israel isn't responsible for Palestinian suffering. Hamas is responsible for Palestinian suffering."

USA - The White House is publicly blaming China for an attack on Microsoft's Exchange email server software that compromised tens of thousands of computers worldwide, allowing hackers to gain access to troves of sensitive data. Separately, the Department of Justice announced Monday that a federal grand jury in May had indicted Chinese nationals accused of working with official sanction from Beijing to break into computer systems belonging to US companies, universities and governments. The cyberattack on Microsoft, which is believed to have begun in January, reportedly injected computers with malware that secretly monitored systems belonging to small businesses, local and state governments and some military contractors. As part of the attack, an unidentified American company was also hit with a high-dollar ransom demand, according to a senior Biden administration official.

ISRAEL - Last April, six Water Authority facilities were targeted in the cyberattack in which hackers attempted to increase the amount of chlorine in the water supply to dangerously high levels. The attacks were countered before any damage could be caused. However, the incident raised major concerns about the ability of the Water Authority to protect itself from future cyberattacks… “Water utilities are at the forefront of global cyberattacks. But utilities have minimal tolerance for a downtime in service, and no utility would agree to a hacker deciding whether its infrastructure will operate or not,” Amir Samoiloff, co-founder and CEO of SIGA, said in a statement… “Israel is under constant threat in the cyber dimension, and attacks are sometimes carried out against it. We are able to deal with most of the threats through advanced defense capabilities,” Major General Tamir Hayman said at a conference at Tel Aviv University. “Those who attack Israel by air, sea, land, or cyber need to understand the risk they are taking,”

USA - Ever wondered where World War III might break out? A clear and troubling consensus has emerged in the American national security community that the Taiwan Strait is the most likely place for a major war to erupt between the United States and China; that it might start soon, and that such a conflict might quickly escalate into a nuclear confrontation. In March, the leading foreign policy organization in the United States, the Council on Foreign Relations in New York, issued a report concluding that Taiwan has become “the most dangerous flashpoint in the world.” There, a unique and troubling set of geopolitical developments have conspired to make a shooting war between the People’s Republic of China and the United States more likely than ever before. Recently the newly appointed commander of US forces in the Indo-Pacific Region, Admiral John Aquilino, remarked that a possible invasion of Taiwan by the People’s Republic of China (PRC) “is much closer than we think.”

USA - Washington and Berlin have struck a deal that would see the US drop opposition to the almost-complete Nord Stream 2 pipeline for Russian gas, in exchange for Germany promising investments in Ukraine. US President Joe Biden administration officials confirmed the existence of the agreement on Wednesday, details of which had been leaked to the press earlier. Under the four-point plan, Germany and the US would invest in energy security and green energy in Ukraine and Europe and back the “Three Seas Initiative” spearheaded by Poland and Croatia. Berlin also pledged to push Russia into extending the current gas arrangement with Ukraine, which provides Kiev with $3 billion in annual transit fees, through 2034 – and promised to back sanctions against Moscow if it commits “aggression” against Ukraine.

SOUTH AFRICA - The National Disaster Management Centre has declared a drought disaster due to the persistent drought conditions in the Northern Cape, Eastern Cape and Western Cape. National resources will now be mobilised to assist affected farmers. Farmers from all three provinces are battling the effects of the drought, the worst experienced in 100 years, according to Agri SA. Agri SA’s risk and disaster manager, Andrea Campher, said they are positive that government will now assist farmers, farmworkers and rural economies affected by the devastating drought.

CHINA - A new video circulated among Chinese Communist Party channels has warned China will destroy Japan with nuclear weapons in a "full-scale war" if Tokyo interferes militarily in Taiwan. The new video singles out Japan, threatening it will be the “exception” to China’s stated policy to not use nuclear weapons against non-nuclear powers. “We will use nuclear bombs first. We will use nuclear bombs continuously. We will do this until Japan declares unconditional surrender for the second time,” the video said. The video ends by stating: "There will be no peace talks."

USA - Did you know that the US has averaged more than one and a half mass shootings a day so far this year? I know that sounds crazy, but it is true. Monday will be the 200th day of the year, and according to Wikipedia there have been 327 mass shootings up to this point in 2021. And actually the information on Wikipedia does not include all of the most recent mass shootings, and so the true number is actually a little higher. But you can’t really blame Wikipedia, because it is extremely difficult to keep up with all of the mass shootings that are happening these days.

USA - Lake Powell is getting an emergency release of water from upstream reservoirs. Water levels have approached a critical level. Water levels in Lake Powell are at record lows. If levels drop much further, hydroelectric turbines will cease to run. The lake supplies water to 30 million people and irrigation of 5 million acres. The Bureau of Reclamation began emergency water releases from reservoirs upstream in the Colorado River this week in an effort to keep Lake Powell, the country’s second-largest reservoir, full enough to continue to generate hydroelectric power.

USA - Wikipedia can no longer be trusted as a source of unbiased information since the online encyclopedia's left-leaning volunteers cut out any news that doesn't fit their agenda, according to the site’s co-founder. Larry Sanger, 52, co-founded Wikipedia in 2001 alongside Jimmy Wales, said the crowdsourcing project has betrayed its original mission by reflecting the views of the ‘establishment.’ He said he agreed with the assessment that ‘teams of Democratic-leaning volunteers’ remove content that isn’t to their liking, including information about scandals linked to President Joe Biden and his son, Hunter Biden. When asked by Unherd.com if Wikipedia can be trusted, he replied: ‘You can trust it to give a reliably establishment point of view on pretty much everything.'

EUROPE - European nations are scrambling to ramp up vaccination drives, using a carrot-and-stick approach to persuade the reluctant to get their shots as the more transmissible delta variant drives a surge in infections. Greece became the latest to enact new restrictions on Friday, requiring proof of vaccination or recent recovery from COVID-19 for access to indoor restaurants, cafes, bars and movie theatres. Children can enter with negative tests. The measure, part of a package of government incentives, had little immediate effect as virtually all public life moves outdoors during Greece’s hot, dry summers. Sidewalk cafes and restaurants and open-air movie theatres remain accessible to all.

USA - Investing in healthy ageing — rather than fighting specific diseases — could have an economic value worth trillions. We’re living longer, but not necessarily better. As the population over 65 in the United States is projected to double by 2060 — with one in five residents in retirement age — so will the number of Americans needing long-term care services. A new study suggests targeting ageing itself — rather than individual diseases associated with it — could be the secret to combatting many health care costs traditionally associated with getting older.