USA - In January, Gucci’s menswear runway collection was an eye-opener. It wasn’t because the brand had just fired its nearly decade-long creative director Frida Giannini in December, or even because new designer Alessandro Michele had pulled the clothing together in less than a week in his new role. It was because the men on the runway looked ... like women.
USA - Target Corp is removing gender labels from most of its children’s departments after customers complained about signs designating certain toys for girls. The kids’ bedding section will no longer feature boy and girl signage, and the toy department will be without labels and pink or blue paper on the shelves, Minneapolis-based Target said on its website Friday.
USA - Americans are still waiting for a resolution to the controversy that erupted when it was discovered that the National Security Agency was spying on everyone’s telephones – lawsuits still are pending and Congress is working on making changes to the law. Now they’re learning that while the NSA was collecting telephone data, the newest version of the ubiquitous Windows software, version 10, is watching everything that’s on their computer.
SPAIN - As the countdown begins to Catalonia’s plebiscite-style elections, scheduled for September 27, cracks are already beginning to show in Spain’s most important economic region. A few days ago, a study by Axesor showed that since the region’s pro-independence premier, Artur Mas, took office in 2011, 3,800 companies have upped sticks and left Catalonia for other regions of Spain. By contrast, just 2,547 companies have relocated from other regions to Catalonia during the same period. The issue of Catalan independence is no longer one based on pragmatic realities; as tensions have festered, it has become an almost purely emotionally driven issue, not just in Catalonia but throughout Spain. Instead of a reasoned national debate, all that now exists is one almighty shouting match between diametrically opposed nationalists who refuse to listen to one another.
UK - A Minister has called for the Government to oust religious education and ban Christianity from schools, in a move that could threaten British culture according to experts. Huw Lewis, Welsh Minister for Education and Skills, has called for the banning to help schools rise to the challenges of "community cohesion" and "extremism".
USA - US President Barack Obama's hopes of preserving the nuclear deal between Iran and world powers were dealt a setback on Thursday when Chuck Schumer, one of the top Democrats in the US Senate, said he would the oppose the agreement. Schumer's opposition, announced in a lengthy statement, could pave the way for more of Obama's fellow Democrats to come out against the nuclear pact announced on July 1 between the United States, five other world powers and Iran.
MIDDLE EAST - Will we soon see World War 3 erupt in the Middle East? Even though Barack Obama has made a “peace deal” with Iran, leaders in the region sure are talking a lot about war. And of course this “deal” is on very shaky ground. The Israelis hate it, a significant portion of the US Congress hates it, and the Iranians have already been accused of breaking the agreement.
SAUDI ARABIA - It is too late for OPEC to stop the shale revolution. The cartel faces the prospect of surging US output whenever oil prices rise. If the oil futures market is correct, Saudi Arabia will start running into trouble within two years. It will be in existential crisis by the end of the decade.
VATICAN - Pope Francis says he hopes the 2017 anniversary of the Reformation, as well as a joint document by the Lutheran-Catholic commission for unity, will further encourage steps for Christian accord. The Pope was referring to the Lutheran-Catholic unity document, "From Conflict to Communion" during a May 4 private meeting with Church of Sweden Archbishop Antje Jackelen.
USA - Millions of fish continue to wash up dead in the Pacific Northwest, allegedly due to unusually hot and dry weather near the Pacific ocean. The Washington State Department have confirmed they’ve lost “1.5 million juvenile fish this year due to drought conditions at our hatcheries,” and remarked, “This is unlike anything we’ve seen for some time.”
USA - Over the last few weeks, America has experienced shock at the revelation that human babies are being harvested for their organs during live abortion procedures. This is all being carried out by Planned Parenthood in the name of "science." But what kind of science underlies such seemingly evil activities? What sort of philosophy must be infecting the minds of individuals who can look at a human baby and see it only as a collection of biological parts to be harvested and sold for profit? The answer is found in scientific materialism.
ISRAEL - Palestinian religious leaders – both Muslims and Christians – signed a declaration stating that Jews have no right to enter the Temple Mount at a press conference in east Jerusalem on Wednesday. The declaration, titled “the Blessed Aksa Mosque Document” and signed by scores of religious figures, expressed their objections to Israeli and Jordanian understandings that allow Jews to visit the Temple Mount and to claims that the two countries had agreed to jointly supervise archeological excavations at the holy site.
ISRAEL - The Palestinian Authority (PA) has stepped up its rhetoric against Jewish rights and heritage to the Temple Mount, Palestinian Media Watch reports Wednesday - now labelling Israel's presence at Judaism's holiest site as an "invasion." "Indeed, the Israeli establishment insists on carrying out its evil plan to destroy the Al-Aqsa Mosque and establish the alleged Temple," PA Minister of Religious Affairs, Sheikh Yusuf Ida'is, stated last month.
ISRAEL - Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas, along with 15 foreign ministers from the Arab League, called on the UN Security Council to draft a resolution protecting Palestinians from "terrorist crimes" by Israeli settlers during a meeting in Cairo, Wednesday.
RUSSIA - Former Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev warns that when one state has immense military might and greater defense budget than anyone else, this creates is “an insurmountable obstacle” on the road to a world without nuclear weapons. “Can we really imagine a world without nuclear weapons if a single country amasses so many conventional weapons that its military budget nearly tops that of all other countries combined?” the former Soviet leader told to Spiegel Online in an apparent – but not explicit – reference to the US.