PAKISTAN - Ten thousand Islamic radicals have rallied in Pakistan against a ‘Draw Mohammed’ contest being hosted in the Netherlands by Geert Wilders, as the South Asian country’s politicians demand global blasphemy laws. Islamists defied the authorities to march on the Pakistani capital of Islamabad from the city of Lahore chanting “we will die to protect the honour of the prophet” to protest Wilders’ contest, according to The Washington Post. As a known critic of Islam, Wilders has lived under heavy security for many years — with other Dutch critics of the Middle Eastern religion such as filmmaker Theo van Gogh and politician Pim Fortuyn having been killed on the street by Muslim assassins. Wilders ...has managed to lead the PVV to become the second-largest party in Dutch politics and believes he will be able to take pole position in the next national election.

USA - More than 200,000 teens had plastic surgery last year, and social media had a lot to do with it. When children younger than 18 come to see Debra Johnson, a plastic surgeon with a private practice in Sacramento, California, she considers many factors before accepting them as patients. Many teenagers today are seeking plastic surgery, according to guidelines published Tuesday in Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery, the official medical journal of American Society of Plastic Surgeons. Some 229,000 cosmetic procedures were performed on patients aged 13 to 19 in 2017. Cosmetic surgery procedures at large jumped 11% in 2017, with patients spending more than $6.5 billion.

USA - Facebook removed a post from the Anne Frank Center about the Holocaust for “violating standards,” and subsequently apologized for the action. Facebook removed a post from the Anne Frank Center about the importance of Holocaust education this week. The post, which focused on the lack of state laws that require Holocaust education, was allegedly removed for including photographs of naked Holocaust child victims. The post, which was made to both Facebook and Twitter, was only removed by Facebook.

USA - Warren Buffett says he could fix the US deficit problem very quickly. Here’s his not-entirely serious (but not entirely joking either) plan, as told to Becky Quick during this morning’s live interview on CNBC: “I could end the deficit in five minutes. You just pass a law that says that any time there’s a deficit of more than three percent of GDP, all sitting members of Congress are ineligible for re-election… now you’ve got the incentives in the right place, right?”

NIGERIA - Fulani Muslim militants launched raids on eight villages in central Nigeria this week, burning alive a Christian pastor along with his wife and three of their children. In the village of Abonong in Plateau State, the Islamic raiders, armed with machetes and AK47 rifles, looted and destroyed 95 houses, along with farmland and three churches. They killed Pastor Adamu Gyang Wurim and his family by setting fire to their house while they were inside and shot the pastor’s wife in the bathroom. The assailants killed two other villagers as well, wounding several others. The attack, which began Tuesday evening around 8:00 pm, lasted over four hours before security personnel finally arrived on the scene. By then the attackers had razed much of the villages of Abonong and Ziyat, and stolen valuables including electronics, mattresses, food, and livestock.

USA - People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) asked Maine officials on Wednesday for permission to build a large grave to mark the site of a truck crash that resulted in thousands of lobsters spilling out onto a highway. PETA hopes to memorialize the “countless sensitive crustaceans” who were killed during the August 22 crash in Brunswick, the animal rights group said. Police said 7,000 pounds of live lobsters were destroyed and it’s suspected it was more than 4,500 lobsters that died, according to the Portland Press Herald. The grave would “remind everyone that the best way to prevent such tragedies is to go vegan,” the animal rights group said.

USA - The United States is currently waging economic warfare against one tenth of the world’s countries with cumulative population of nearly 2 billion people and combined gross domestic product (GDP) of more than $15 trillion. These include Russia, Iran, Venezuela, Cuba, Sudan, Zimbabwe, Myanmar, the Democratic Republic of Congo, North Korea and others on which Washington has imposed sanctions over the years, but also countries like China, Pakistan and Turkey which are not under full sanctions but rather targets of other punitive economic measures.

FRANCE - French President Emmanuel Macron yesterday called on the European Union to take control of its defence, urging the bloc to stop relying so much on the United States for its security and consider reinforcing defence ties with Russia. The French centrist lamented the fact that China and the United States did not recognise the bloc as an “independent” world power. “Europe cannot rely on the United States for its security. It’s up to us to meet our responsibilities and guarantee our own security, and therefore European sovereignty,” he said in a speech to French ambassadors in Paris. “Do China and the United States think of Europe as a power with similar independence to their own? It is not the case,” he added.

USA - The Trump administration seems poised to help bring real and lasting peace to the Middle East by recognizing the long-ignored reality that the Palestinian “refugee” issue is a giant fraud perpetuated by the Palestinians together with the United Nations.

EUROPE - EU negotiator Michel Barnier finally conceded he would have to offer Britain a unique deal on Brexit today in the first hint of a climb down from Brussels. In remarks that sent the pound soaring up against the euro and the dollar, Mr Barnier promised a 'partnership with Britain such as has never been with any other third country'. Mr Barnier has repeatedly insisted Britain must choose from an existing model used by either Norway or Canada - deals the UK say are unacceptable. The Brussels chief still insists Britain cannot have an 'a la carte' choice of benefits from the EU single market. The intervention is a significant boost for Theresa May who has spent the summer trying to win support in EU capitals for her Brexit blueprint.

VATICAN - Vatican whistle-blower who has accused Pope Francis of having covered up sexually abusive behaviour by an American cardinal stepped up his attack on Wednesday, speaking from a secret location. Archbishop Carlo Mario Vigano, a former Vatican ambassador to the US, has plunged the Catholic Church into crisis with allegations that the pope failed to act against Theodore McCarrick, a US cardinal, who was accused of sexually abusing young priests over decades. Cardinal McCarrick, the former archbishop of Washington, resigned in disgrace last month, becoming the first cardinal to step down since 1927. Archbishop Vigano, 77, released an 11-page document detailing the allegations at the weekend and called on Francis to resign.

EUROPE - Over 100 European journalists signed an open letter accusing Big Tech companies, like Google and Facebook, of stealing their news, and supporting a European reform which would make Silicon Valley pay for it. According to AFP, “journalists from more than 20 countries joined a call Tuesday for European MPs to approve a controversial media reform aimed at forcing internet giants to pay for news content,” which will be discussed again in European Parliament, September, following the reform’s rejection in July. In an open letter signed by over 100 journalists, they described the current situation as a “fleecing of the media of their rightful revenue,” and “morally and democratically unjustifiable.”

USA - Teachers in Portland Public Schools are being given a teaching guide called “Planning to Change The World – A Plan Book For Social Justice Teachers.” At $18.00 a piece, with 3500 teachers, well, you can do the math to see how much money they’re spending just on this planning book. This planning book, published by Rethinking Schools, includes all of the wackjobbery that one would expect and more. They praise Che Guevara, feature Black Panther founders, promote islam, and several communist sympathizing mentions. There’s even a section to help teachers to stop using offensive and oppressive terms such as “boy” or “girl” in an effort to be more sensitive to trans and gender non-conforming students. These are designed to cater to kids as young as 5 years old.

VATICAN - The author of the bombshell accusation of sex abuse cover-up against Pope Francis has broken his silence and insisted he didn't act out of revenge or anger but out of love for the Catholic Church. Archbishop Carlo Maria Vigano told Italian journalist Aldo Maria Valli — a Vatican expert with state-run RAI television — that he was "serene and at peace" after publishing his declaration on Sunday, albeit saddened by subsequent attempts to undermine his credibility.

VATICAN - The Catholic bishops of Latin America have reacted strongly to allegations that Pope Francis knowingly rehabilitated a cardinal guilty of serial sex abuse, calling the accusations a “shameful” attack on the pope. During a meeting last Sunday in Medellín, Colombia, the president of the Latin American bishops’ council (CELAM) said that in the past adversaries attacked the institution, and “today they attack the person.”