UK - For Gen Z, the future has looked bleak for a while. Many struggle to secure a house, a job or a life partner. Is it any wonder that they’re turning to magic? Julie Aspinall has been selling magical products and services for the best part of a decade, but has seen business boom in recent years. The self-described witch helps clients find love, land a job, or get rich – all for £150 a spell. “I saw a massive surge in spirituality after Covid,” she says. “Younger people got involved. They stopped what they were doing and reflected, getting off the hamster wheel of life." Aspinall believes the curiosity young people are showing for the supernatural is down to something deeper than a social media fad. “When I grew up, everyone had a religion. Over the years, religion has faded and more people are looking for meaning in life,” she says. “In the future, spirituality will get even bigger,” she says. “Everyone’s looking for something deeper.”

USA - Outrage has exploded as public school students in Texas were loaded onto yellow school buses and driven straight to an Islamic center so they could experience Islam 'up close'. The organizers could barely contain their excitement. In their own promotional video, they celebrated how the kids showed up and potentially left transformed. Over 30 high school students from Humble ISD's Kingwood High School and Atascocita High School were taken on a school-day field trip to the Centro Islamico, operated by IslamInSpanish in the Houston area. The visit included a tour, lunch from halal food trucks, observation of midday prayer, and a presentation. Students were even provided scarves. A CAIR Houston representative spoke to them about their "rights as Muslim students and allies." Governor Greg Abbott has made clear that Sharia law, Sharia cities, and no-go zones have no place in Texas.

EUROPE - With record setting heatwaves scorching Europe, water levels in the continent’s major rivers are reaching all-time lows. While receding water levels are a huge boon for European archeologists as ancient ruins surface for the first time in centuries, the situation is causing massive headaches for nuclear engineers, who have had to scramble to power down nuclear energy facilities across the continent. As German broadcaster Deutsche Welle reported, facilities like the two gigawatt Paks nuclear plant in Hungary have come close to powering down completely, as a critical lack of water flowing from the Danube threatened the facility’s ability to cool its reactors. That’s a major crisis, because in any given year, the Paks plant generates nearly half of the country’s total electricity supply. Meanwhile in France, a combination of extreme drought and a recurring jellyfish invasion have reduced the nation’s nuclear energy production by 20 percent, though a more diversified energy grid means the situation isn’t quite as hairy as those in Hungary or Romania. With yet another heat wave already on the horizon, Europe’s nuclear energy woes may really just be the tip of the iceberg.

MIDDLE EAST - Anti-Israel statements of the emergent alliance between Saudi Arabia, Turkey, and Pakistan are not just rhetoric. Rather, they form an integral element in its strategy. The Mecca Joint Defense Agreement, signed on August 7 by Saudi Arabia, Turkey, and Pakistan, represents the first formalization of the slow emergence of a conservative Sunni Islamic bloc intended to provide a strategic counterweight against both Israel and Iran. In recent months, many Middle East analysts have taken note of this nascent development. The implications of the emergence of this bloc are already more than symbolic. It has its foundations in existing and growing bilateral ties between these countries in the fields of trade and economic relations and military cooperation, and is not only a matter of declarations. Jerusalem, and Islamic claims there, are likely to form the symbolic element that knits the emergent group together.

MIDDLE EAST - Due to growing frustration with the Trump administration’s handling of Iran, they may be considering exploring new arrangements, according to the report. US-allied Gulf states are increasingly concerned that US President Donald Trump may not be able to secure peace with Iran through diplomatic channels, the Washington Post reported Saturday citing Arab and Western officials. Three officials and one former US diplomat alleged to the Washington Post that the governments of Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Qatar, Kuwait, and Bahrain are united in their frustration with Trump. One Gulf state official stated that anger with the US has reached its highest point since the war with Iran began in February. “Trump started this war,” the official told the newspaper, “and we are paying the price.” While Washington is a close security partner and arms supplier to Gulf nations, some governments in the region are reportedly beginning to question the utility of continuing to host US military bases within their territory.

MIDDLE EAST - Palestinians cannot repeatedly pass up opportunities, embrace or tolerate violence instead, and then insist that someone else is solely responsible for the consequences. Before asking why there is no Palestinian state today, it is worth recalling a basic historical fact: there has never been a Palestinian state in all of history. Even the name itself is revealing.

IRAN - Iran has demanded that Donald Trump accept defeat in the Middle East. Responding to the US president’s assertion that the Strait of Hormuz would soon be declared US territory, Kazem Gharibabadi, Iran’s deputy foreign minister, said the vital oil-shipping route would remain under Iranian control. “The strait will be closed and opened only under Iran’s command, and as long as you do not accept the reality of defeat and cease indulging in fantasies, Iran will continue to enforce the blockade,” Mr Gharibabadi wrote on X. “Once and for all, accept the reality: Up to this point, you have suffered strategic and heavy defeats; the Strait of Hormuz has been Iranian, and will remain Iranian.”

UK - Just as we were growing accustomed to the inflationary shock of renewed conflict in the Gulf, along comes another, this time fed by factors beyond our immediate control. Flying into London the other day was to see England’s once green and pleasant land transformed into an ugly brown and yellow dustbowl – a landscape of almost dystopian desolation in its scorched lifelessness. I’m not going to get into the politics of climate change, still less the pros and cons of net zero, suffice it to say that if you haven’t noticed that something extremely alarming is going on with the weather then you need your head examined. This is plainly more than just an aberration.

UK - There are few jobs in Britain where failure can bring the country to a halt in seconds, with lives at risk and huge economic damage done. Operating the electricity grid is one of them, which is why the growing list of problems at the National Energy System Operator (NESO) should worry all of us. In recent weeks we have seen the grid operating outside safe limits, exports to Europe cut without warning or agreement, dramatic claims from whistleblowers that blackouts are inevitable, evidence that meters are being installed backwards as new equipment is connected to the grid, and total failures of NESO systems forcing engineers to use spreadsheets and telephoned instructions. At the same time, NESO has been granted permission to reduce its safety margins and been given enhanced powers to impose rolling blackouts. The maths, as they say, are not mathing.

TAIWAN - “Missile attack. Seek immediate shelter,” flashes the alert on my phone. It’s the middle of the day in bustling Taipei, but the streets are empty and the shops have pulled down their shutters. Air raid sirens ring out and a second message tells me that simulated air attacks on the country’s communications infrastructure have cut the mobile internet. None of my WhatsApp messages or emails are loading. The online apps on my phone won’t work. This is what could happen if China attacked Taiwan. But today, luckily, this is only a drill.