GERMANY - The German Federal Criminal Police Office (BKA) may soon be allowed to secretly enter and search homes, according to a draft reform proposal seen by Der Spiegel and RND. According to the document, police would also have the power to install spyware on suspects’ computers or smartphones, in addition to conducting covert searches of their homes. These powers would supposedly only be used in exceptional circumstances. The Interior Ministry has defended the initiative, claiming that the BKA plays a central role in countering international terrorism threats. A spokesperson refused to discuss details of the proposal, which is still at a very early stage, but told Der Spiegel on Wednesday that security agencies must have the necessary powers to effectively counter evolving threats.

USA - Google admitted that autocomplete search results regarding the assassination attempt against former President Trump last month were prohibited by design and part of the company’s policy for “hypothetical political violence against current figures.” FOX Business reported exclusively in July that Senator Roger Marshall, Republican for Kansas, was launching an investigation into Google after its autocomplete search results did not register the assassination attempt against Trump on July 13, which was dominating the news. He questioned the company in a letter over the search function, asking about its algorithm and what decisions were made in the aftermath of the attack on Trump.

USA - Most Americans don’t even realize that virtually all of their personal information has been stolen and posted online for free. The personal records of 2.9 billion people were stolen from a major data broker known as National Public Data earlier this year, and this month almost of the information that was stolen was posted online for anyone to freely take. We are talking about names, addresses, phone numbers, employment histories, birth dates and Social Security numbers. This is one of the most egregious privacy violations in the history of the world, but hardly anyone knows what has happened.

ISRAEL - An Israeli crowd led by hard-right politician Itamar Ben-Gvir stormed Jerusalem's most holy site today in a pilgrimage seen by Muslims as provocative. His visit to the Al-Aqsa Mosque launches a fresh challenge to rules covering one of the most sensitive sites in the Middle East - with tensions over the compound fuelling violence before. The Palestinian Foreign Ministry condemned the visit - which took place on a Jewish holiday- as a 'provocative intrusion' that endangered the fragile status quo regarding the Jerusalem compound.

UK - Ritchie Herron has been experiencing a living nightmare for six years. The 37-year-old civil servant, who in 2018 underwent radical gender surgery to complete his physical transformation to live as a woman, is one of a growing number of patients who have come to deeply regret undergoing medical interventions to change gender. Herron’s distress has been compounded by the NHS response to his desire to “detransition”, which has appeared clumsy and ill-suited to the situation in which he found himself. He claims that the inadequacy of the health service’s approach was highlighted by the fact that the main clinician assigned to oversee his care was a gynaecologist – a specialism which would clearly “not [offer] the right expertise” for someone seeking to overturn their transition to the female gender.

USA - Hundreds of girls aged 12 and under have had 'top surgery' to remove their breasts in the US since 2017, data suggests. And more than 6,000 girls aged 13 to 18 had the 'gender-affirming' surgeries in that time, according to an analysis seen by DailyMail.com. It comes after the Biden Administration came out against transgender surgeries for children in June for the first time, marking a major pivot from its earlier stance. High profile Democrats, including Kentucky Governor Andy Beshear, had previously claimed sex change surgeries 'don't happen' on children. Researchers at the conservative Manhattan Institute think-tank carried out what they call the biggest ever analysis of transgender care for minors, reviewing more than 4 billion insurance claims from 155 million people between 2017 and 2023.

USA - Why do western officials insist on gaslighting the public on illegal border crossings? Why do they attempt to destroy anyone that publicly opposes mass immigration from the third world? The laws on the books support the public’s majority position on immigration – Come here legally or don’t come here at all. In Europe, the UK and the US polls show a majority of citizens want reductions in immigration and better border security. Yet, government officials, who often claim to be “protecting democracy,” brazenly ignore these majority concerns. Why?The post-war British populace has long lived without a relationship to true violence. Sure, they have football riots and brawls, but I’m talking about cold, calculated ethnic warfare designed to subjugate. Alien migrants coming from Africa and the Middle East are intimately familiar with such violence. They know it well and have embraced it totally as a part of their culture.

CHINA - China just built the biggest ever offshore oil platform. There is no green energy ‘transition’. Two major announcements from a pair of the world’s largest oil and gas companies have exposed the folly of the idea that some kind of energy “transition” is underway. In an interesting twist, the two companies seem likely to become partners in one of the world’s biggest and fastest-growing deepwater projects.

CANADA - Canada’s “record-shattering” wildfires last year produced nearly as much greenhouse gas emissions in one season as would be expected over a decade of fires in normal circumstances, data has shown. The fires, in Canada’s “wildest season ever”, were made at least three times more likely by the climate crisis, and produced about 2 billion tonnes of CO2, about a quarter of the total global emissions from wildfires last year, according to data in the State of Wildfires report, published on Wednesday. The health impacts from last year’s fires will also continue to be felt for decades. Carbon dioxide from wildfires is a growing source of greenhouse gas emissions globally, reaching about 8.6 billion tonnes last year, considerably more than the 4.8 billion annual emissions of the US from all sources.

SWITZERLAND - The World Health Organization has designated the surge in monkeypox virus infections in Africa as a public health emergency of international concern (PHEIC) and urged a vaccination campaign. The virus has long been endemic in central Africa, mainly in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. When it first began spreading in late 2022, the WHO declared an emergency – and renamed the disease mpox, to avoid “stigma.” “On top of outbreaks of other mpox clades in DRC and other countries in Africa, it’s clear that a coordinated international response is needed to stop these outbreaks and save lives,” WHO Director-General Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said on Wednesday. The virus “appears to be spreading mainly through sexual networks,” Dr Tedros said, describing the development as “especially concerning.” The WHO has long designated gay men as a key demographic affected by the virus.

UKRAINE - All over the world, the old military rules are being broken, this has the potential to become very dangerous. The UN has once again failed to formulate a position on the invasion of Russian territory by Ukrainian forces. The US and the EU have so far confined themselves to vague statements. Official Kiev at the highest level has also been relatively quiet. The Ukrainian public mainly relies on Russian sources for information, and foreign military experts have also refrained from making detailed predictions. Apparently, the outside world is still not fully aware of what is going on, hence the muted reactions. In general, this is a trend. All over the world, red lines are being crossed, the old rules of the game are being broken and things are getting out of control. So for the Russian-Ukraine conflict the choice is really quite simple: there will either be a further escalation of hostilities or negotiations. Or first the former and then the latter. But, of course, it’d be better if we jumped directly to the latter.

USA - Most people don’t seem to realize this yet, but we have entered a time of global war. While millions in the western world are partying, an apocalyptic all-out war is threatening to erupt in the Middle East and Ukraine has launched a surprise invasion of Russia. Needless to say, seeing Ukrainian troops come pouring across Russia’s lightly defended border in the Kursk region came as quite a shock to Vladimir Putin and his generals. The Ukrainians have decided to take things to the next level, and the Russians are beyond angry. Meanwhile, Israel is bracing for a “large scale” Iranian attack at any time… We have been waiting for Iran to strike Israel since the end of July, but so far such an attack has not materialized.

UK - The bill for a weekly shop in Britain’s poorest households rose by far more than it did in wealthy homes during the height of the cost of living crisis as the sharpest price increases affected cheaper brands, research reveals. The study by the Institute for Fiscal Studies (IFS) found the least well-off had been hardest hit by “cheapflation” in the 2021-23 period – paying 29.1% more for their food, compared with 23.5% for better-off households. The report, which lays bare the disproportionate impact of rising food prices on the poor, has been released to coincide with the latest cost of living figures from the Office for National Statistics. Hard-up consumers had responded to the squeeze on living standards by switching to bargain brands that were experiencing the biggest price rises, the IFS found.

UK - Universities have been accused of running ‘Mickey Mouse’ courses to stay afloat as they advertise degrees in rap music, e-sports and social media. A wide array of novelty courses are on offer for students who do not make their predicted grades on A-level results day on Thursday and have to go through clearing. Students can apply for taxpayer-provided loans to cover the £9,250 a year tuition fees, plus maintenance loans for living expenses. It means they are getting the same levels of student funding as those studying at Oxbridge, in many cases for three-year degrees. Daily Mail analysis of the Ucas Clearing website shows 22 institutions are offering courses in e-sports; nine have social media courses; three have digital content creation courses; and one has a ‘rap and MC’ course. It comes as universities face tough financial challenges, with tuition fees frozen since 2017.

USA - Expanding public transportation and finding shelter for unhoused people are key elements of city’s planning. As the Olympics came to a close this weekend, stars gathered from Paris to Long Beach to help mark the end of this year’s events and usher in the 2028 Games, which are set to take place in Los Angeles. Los Angeles will host the Games for a third time in July 2028 – having previously held events in 1932 and 1984. The city has been preparing for years, adding thousands of hotel rooms, modifying existing venues for the games and expanding transit options.