UK - A town councillor who asked questions about 300 Afghans put up in a local hotel was 'reported to police for stirring up hate’. John Edwards has also been placed under ‘investigation’ by a ‘monitoring officer’ at Bracknell Forest Council in Berkshire. The elected councillor began asking questions in April, questioning whether the large number of new arrivals would affect local residents on the housing waiting list. But instead of getting answers, Councillor Edwards said he was accused of ‘inciting’ hate and spreading ‘misinformation’ against an ethnic group. The Free Speech Union has now taken up his case, calling it a ‘chilling’ example of democracy being suppressed. 'It’s a way to smear and silence me, and it has a chilling effect which amounts to, “disagree with the council and you will be call a racist”.'

UK - Recruitment for the £23,500 per year administration role in Manchester draws opposition backlash. An advert for a “Shariah law administrator” has been deleted from the government’s jobs website after a backlash from MPs. The Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) was criticised by Reform UK and Conservative MPs for hosting the advertisement on its Find A Job website. The role, which pays £23,500 per year and appears to be based in Didsbury, Manchester, required the successful applicant to “provide all admin and secretarial work” for the Manchester Shariah Council. Its advert said candidates must have previous work experience “in Shariah law-related fields and/or Shariah courts in Muslim countries”, as well as an understanding of British law. Sharia courts have existed in the UK since the early 1980s and issue Islam-inspired rulings on family life and marriage matters.

UK - At least 85 Islamic sharia courts are operating in Britain, a study claimed yesterday. The astonishing figure is 17 times higher than previously accepted. The tribunals, working mainly from mosques, settle financial and family disputes according to religious principles. They lay down judgments which can be given full legal status if approved in national law courts. However, they operate behind doors that are closed to independent observers and their decisions are likely to be unfair to women and backed by intimidation, a report by independent think-tank Civitas said. 'Sharia courts operating in Britain may be handing down rulings that are inappropriate to this country because they are linked to elements in Islamic law that are seriously out of step with trends in Western legislation.'

UK - If Britain wants to be taken seriously on the world stage, it would do better to build up its defence capabilities than to make empty threats to China. Yesterday in Australia, Defence Secretary John Healey declared that Britain would be ready to fight if a conflict breaks out over Taiwan. In other words, if China invades Taiwan, which is a distinct possibility. President Xi has made it clear he intends to bring the country under Chinese rule and has not excluded the use of force. Indeed, Beijing has been preparing for exactly that for years.

USA - President Donald Trump announced a sweeping trade agreement with the European Union (EU) on Sunday, setting a baseline 15 percent tariff on European imports — including automobiles — while keeping existing 50 percent duties on steel and aluminum in place. As part of the deal, the EU committed to purchasing $750 billion in US energy products. Trump announced the agreement during a press conference with European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen after a private meeting at Trump Turnberry in Scotland. The EU will purchase three-quarters of a trillion dollars in US energy, while also investing $600 billion into America on top of existing investments. Additionally, EU countries will be setting tariffs on US goods at zero percent, and Europe agreed “to purchase a vast amount of military equipment,” Trump said.

USA - A team of researchers in California drew notoriety last year with an aborted experiment on a retired aircraft carrier that sought to test a machine for creating clouds. But behind the scenes, they were planning a much larger and potentially riskier study of salt water-spraying equipment that could eventually be used to dim the sun’s rays — a multimillion-dollar project aimed at producing clouds over a stretch of ocean larger than Puerto Rico. The details outlined in funding requests, emails, texts and other records obtained by POLITICO’s E&E News raise new questions about a secretive billionaire-backed initiative that oversaw last year’s brief solar geoengineering experiment on the San Francisco Bay.

USA - President Donald Trump branded wind power a “con job” after playing golf in Scotland, describing how turbines ruined the view from the 18th hole of his Turnberry course. The president said wind farms spoiled the landscape and sucked in expensive subsidies in comments likely to complicate a meeting with Sir Keir Starmer on Monday. “The whole thing is a con job. It’s very expensive,” he added as he announced a trade deal with the EU. The deal includes the EU buying billions of dollars of American energy, including natural gas. Mr Trump’s comments on wind energy, however, are likely to complicate Mr Trump’s meeting on Monday with Sir Keir, who has staked Britain’s future energy supply on wind.

UK - The UK is in a “debt doom loop”, according to the founder of one of the world’s biggest hedge funds, who recommended people put at least 15 per cent of their savings into gold or bitcoin to help shield them from potential market turmoil. Ray Dalio, the billionaire founder of Bridgewater Associates in the United States, said the bond markets were too complacent about the excessive borrowing by many western governments and the risks were not fully priced in. Speaking on The Master Investor Podcast with Wilfred Frost, he reserved some of his fiercest criticism for Britain. “The UK is in a debt doom loop,” he said, and warning signals were “beginning to flash and flicker”.

USA - OpenAI’s ChatGPT AI chatbot reportedly offered users instructions on how to murder, self-mutilate, and worship the devil. After being tipped off by someone who says he inadvertently prompted ChatGPT to provide a ritual offering to the demonic entity Molech — which explicitly involves child sacrifice according to the Bible — journalists with the Atlantic conducted an experiment to see if they could recreate the results. By the end of the experiment, ChatGPT “encouraged me to cut my wrists” with a “sterile or very clean razor blade,” and instructed the journalist where, specifically, to slash herself, the magazine reported. After asking the chatbot to help create a ritual offering to Molech, ChatGPT suggested using jewelry, hair clippings, and “a drop” of her own blood. In another conversation, ChatGPT provided an invocation to the devil, generating, “In your name, I become my own master. Hail Satan.”

IRAN - At least 50,000 officials from inside Iran’s ruling government and military have registered with a secure platform set up to coordinate the ousting of the dictatorship in Tehran, according to a prominent opponent of the regime. Reza Pahlavi, the exiled son of the last shah of Iran, who was deposed in the 1979 revolution, announced a month ago that he was creating the channel for regime defectors to register and receive information on campaign tactics from his opposition movement. Speaking to POLITICO, he said the numbers still needed to be fully verified but his team were working to establish links with key elements in Iran’s military, paramilitary and security forces, who would play a potential role toppling Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei and working to establish a new secular state.

USA - President Trump just made a big announcement on TruthSocial. It’s wonderful to see some justice from the corrupt media. Maybe they will change their ways. We heard about the $16 million settlement from CBS. However, it turns out it is actually $36 million. “BREAKING NEWS! We have just achieved a BIG AND IMPORTANT WIN in our Historic Lawsuit against 60 Minutes, CBS, and Paramount. Just like ABC and George Slopadopoulos, CBS and its Corporate Owners knew that they defrauded the American People, and were desperate to settle. Paramount/CBS/60 Minutes have today paid $16 Million Dollars in settlement, and we also anticipate receiving $20 Million Dollars more from the new Owners, in Advertising, PSAs, or similar Programming, for a total of over $36 Million Dollars. This is another in a long line of VICTORIES over the Fake News Media, who we are holding to account for their widespread fraud and deceit. The Wall Street Journal, The Failing New York Times, The Washington Post, MSDNC, CNN, and all other Mainstream Media Liars, are ON NOTICE that the days of them being allowed to deceive the American People are OVER. MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN!”

SWITZERLAND - Klaus Schwab was the undisputed “King of Davos” for 55 years. But when his downfall came, it was swift. The 87-year-old founder of the World Economic Forum (WEF), which holds the annual conference in the Swiss alpine ski resort, fought until the end. But over two days in April, beset by allegations of misusing WEF funds, manipulating research and inappropriate behaviour with staff, he was forced out of his personal fiefdom. On Sunday, the early findings of a second investigation into the WEF were leaked. They alleged that Mr Schwab had misspent WEF money and manipulated research for political reasons, including rigging data to make Brexit look like a failure. His credibility now lies in ruins and the future of Davos is openly questioned.

UK - Migrant hotel protests spread across Britain on Saturday as public anger grew over illegal immigration. In Norwich, hundreds of Union Flag-waving locals gathered outside the Brook Hotel to demand its closure. There were also protests in Leeds, Southampton and Nottinghamshire, with more planned for Sunday. The Nottinghamshire protest was mostly peaceful although there was a brief confrontation involving pro-migrant counter-demonstrators. Female protesters in Norwich told The Telegraph that the migrant hotel made them fear for their safety because two former residents had been jailed for sex offences in the past three months. Ian Curry, who served in Northern Ireland and Kuwait in the Royal Marines from 1987 to 1999, said the public needed to “wake up” and demand the closure of the hotels. “Women and children are not safe in this country,” the 58-year-old said. “This is what the demonstration was for. Where’s all the money for these hotels coming from? It’s coming from us.”

UK - Look at the images from outside asylum hotels in what were, until an eyeblink ago, tranquil corners of Essex, Norfolk or Hampshire. Observe the one-sided policing and the way local people react to it. It is hard not to see a country trembling on the brink of unrest. Asymmetric policing is turning the immigration fiasco into a crisis of state legitimacy. When people see officers protecting masked pro-immigration thugs outside asylum hotels, they conclude that the apparatus of the British state is being used to push an unpopular policy down their throats.

UK - When I spoke to local people on the high street they uniformly expressed their unhappiness about what was happening at the Bell Hotel but did not want to “appear racist”. “Something had been brewing for weeks,” one woman said. Another middle-aged woman, who lives on a private gated estate near the Bell, said: “I hate it. It makes me feel very uneasy. It’s not lit at night and there are so many bored men in there. We’ve had to put up with this for four years. Even after the arrest, men from the hotel were following and taking pictures of young women on the high street.”