GERMANY - Germany's energy regulator has suspended approval for Russia's Nord Stream 2 pipeline hours after Boris Johnson told the EU it must choose between Ukraine's freedom or buying gas from Moscow. Construction of the pipeline, which will carry Russian gas directly across the Baltic to Germany, was delayed by United States sanctions and is strongly opposed by many European countries who believe it is designed to freeze Ukraine out of transit fees for shipping Russian gas. German regulator, Bundesnetzagentur, said on Tuesday it had suspended the certification process because the Swiss-based consortium behind Nord Stream 2 needed to form a company under German law to secure an operating licence. Skyrocketing gas prices jumped 9 per cent on the regulator's move amid fears that Europe will face a crippling shortage this winter and be forced to bow to Vladimir Putin's demands to keep houses warm on the Continent.

INDIA - Lockdown to combat air pollution: New Delhi prepares to ban non-essential travel and close offices due to toxic smog even though India torpedoed Cop 26 coal deal. India’s Supreme Court has called for a lockdown in New Delhi to try and reduce air pollution by banning non-essential travel and closing offices. The proposal, the first of its kind, comes as the city of 20 million battles smog which has forced schools to shut for a week to keep children from breathing in toxic air. The Delhi government on Monday pushed back hard against the call by the country’s top court, arguing that without a concerted effort by other states, the lockdown would have little impact on air quality.

ISRAEL - Jerusalem is the capital of Israel. It’s a fact that much of the rest of the world is belatedly accepting. If only Israel could get its own government ministries to do the same. Israel Today has in the past spoken to Israelis who complained that it was no use trying to convince the rest of the world that Jerusalem was the capital of the State of Israel when its own Ministry of Defense and other major government bodies remained in Tel Aviv. Israel’s new “government of change” is looking to, well, change that.

NEW ZEALAND - Despite having a vaccinated population of 80%, leftist PM Jacinda Ardern says she will force healthcare workers and other businesses to get the COVID vaccine. Thousands gathered on Tuesday at New Zealand’s Parliament, in Wellington, to protest COVID vaccine mandates and other strong restrictions imposed in the Oceania country during the pandemic. In significant police presence, demonstrators carried signs with messages such as “Freedom,” “No more control,” or “My body, My choice,” as seen in local media footage. The Prime Minister, who from the onset of the pandemic opted for harsh restrictions such as the closing of borders or selective confinements to eliminate COVID-19, announced last month that she would make the vaccine mandatory for workers who are in contact with clients, as well as teachers and health sector personnel.

RUSSIA – Russia has warned relations with the West are “almost at boiling point” as tensions mount over migrants at the Poland-Belarus border. With Nato and Russian forces playing cat and mouse games, Vladimir Putin has said he would “simply destroy” any country that encroached on his country’s territory. Recent days have seen US officials warn Russia may be plotting an imminent invasion of Ukraine, with the Kremlin massing 100,000 troops on their border. And Vladimir Putin's regime has been accused of stoking the unfolding migrant crisis between Belarus and Poland and even sent nuclear bombers into the area. Europe's last dictatorship has been accused of "weaponising" migration against the EU - sparking a tense stand-off along the Belarusian and Polish border with troops on both sides.

CHINA - Global wealth tripled over the last two decades, with China leading the way and overtaking the US for the top spot worldwide. Net worth worldwide rose to $514 trillion in 2020, from $156 trillion in 2000, according to the study. China accounted for almost one-third of the increase. Its wealth skyrocketed to $120 trillion from a mere $7 trillion in 2000, the year before it joined the World Trade Organization, speeding its economic ascent. The US, held back by more muted increases in property prices, saw its net worth more than double over the period, to $90 trillion.

USA - The level of lawlessness that we are now witnessing in the United States of America is absolutely breathtaking. On average, thieves are stealing more than 100 million dollars worth of merchandise from our retailers every single day. Just think about that. I have written extensively about the shoplifting epidemic that is plaguing this country, but even I didn’t know that things had gotten that bad. Sadly, much of the thievery is being committed by highly organized gangs of looters. These professional looters seem to have no fear of being confronted. And that is probably because they know that even if they are caught they will never be charged with a felony. Many states have changed their laws to be more lenient on shoplifters in recent years, and this appears to be helping to fuel an enormous boom in organized retail theft…

USA - The pieces of the puzzle may fit together in ways that you do not expect. For years, the global elite have been openly telling us that one day we will all own nothing, we will have no privacy, and we will be extremely happy with our new socialist utopia. But exactly how do they intend to transition to such a society? Are they going to come and take all of your stuff? Needless to say, there are millions upon millions of very angry people out there that aren’t just going to hand over their stuff to a bunch of socialists. So how are they going to overcome that obstacle?

UK - The Conference of the parties has been an almighty failure, regardless of how they try to spin it. It has proven to be nothing more than a talking shop, while reaching an agreement not worth the paper it is written on. Moreover, the world’s leaders have been exposed as hypocrites prepared to lecture us mere mortals on how we should be living, while not practicing an iota of what they preach.

USA - When the sheriff in Suffolk County, New York, requested $700,000 from the US government for an artificial intelligence system to eavesdrop on prison phone conversations, his office called it a key tool in fighting gang-related and violent crime. But the county jail ended up listening to calls involving a much wider range of subjects - scanning as many as 600,000 minutes per month, according to public records from the county obtained by the Thomson Reuters Foundation. Beginning in 2019, Suffolk County was an early pilot site for the Verus AI-scanning system sold by California-based LEO Technologies, which uses Amazon speech-to-text technology to transcribe phone calls flagged by key word searches. The company and law enforcement officials say it is a crucial tool to keep prisons and jails safe, and fight crime, but critics say such systems trample the privacy rights of prisoners and other people, like family members, on the outside.

UK - Last week I was cancelled - by a doctor who puts politics above the dying. Over the years, I have developed a thick skin after receiving abuse and facing physical threats. But the vindictiveness of the cancel culture mob knows no limits. This latest case not only proves how a sickness is increasingly infecting a large part of British culture and shows no sign of abating, but how it is damaging society’s most vulnerable.

POLISH-BELARUS BORDER - Border police have been blinded with lasers and strobe lights as they struggle to shore up Europe’s eastern frontier defences against the flow of migrants unleashed by Belarus. Polish authorities say soldiers loyal to Alexander Lukashenko, the despotic ruler of the former Soviet republic, have been arming refugees with tear gas as he steps up his so-called ‘hybrid war’ on Europe. The latest escalation of this crisis started on Friday night as Belarus troops ripped down posts next to barbed-wire barriers that the Polish government has installed along 120 miles of the 250-mile border between the two nations. They released video footage showing border guards targeted by strong lasers and bright strobe lighting. A spokesman for the Polish Border Force said about 100 migrants were armed with tear gas, which was used against their guards.

RUSSIA - Fears of a Russian invasion into Ukraine are growing by the day after the size of Moscow's forces was exposed. There are more troops from Russia deployed to its eastern border with Ukraine than there are in the entire British Army. Rohit Kachroo, ITV's Global Security Editor, said that the latest images showed tens of thousands of ground military forces, tanks and armoured personnel carriers. The latest analysis from the Ukrainian government showed nearly 100,000 Russian soldiers near Ukraine's border - compared to the 82,230 regular full-time personnel in the British Army. This comes amid news that the UK is ready to deploy British troops in the region if the conflict escalates into an armed conflict. A British defence source said: “The anxiety is because we don't know what's going to happen. It is an unpredictable situation.”

USA - Biden’s radical nominees continue to show their true colors. Biden’s Marxist currency nominee Saule Omarova said that all private bank accounts should be taken over and controlled by the Federal Reserve. In September President Joe Biden nominated Saule Omarova to become comptroller of the currency at the Department of Treasury. If confirmed, Omarova would be in charge of overseeing banking in the United States. Biden on September 23 nominated Saul Omarova, a law school professor at Cornell University, for the office responsible with the regulation and supervision of all national banks. Omarova’s nomination drew immediate pushback from powerful voices who criticized her background and past comments that indicated a favor for the policies of the USSR. Omarova was born in the Soviet Union in what is now called Kazakhstan and graduated from Moscow State University in 1989. She has pointed to the USSR’s practices as recently as 2019, when she tweeted about the gender pay gap, citing the USSR as a better model.

USA - Politicians face violence and threats from voters — and each other. Are we nearing a civil war? The signs give cause for concern. America suffers from societal and political conditions that predispose it to violence, and the list seems to be growing. Last week, an anonymous caller told a Republican congressman who voted with Democrats in favor of the infrastructure bill, that he and his staff should die. On Monday, Twitter added a warning label to a cartoon video shared by a different Republican congressman in which he assassinated a colleague from across the aisle. On Wednesday, a Black Lives Matter organizer threatened “bloodshed” if New York’s mayor-elect reinstated a controversial anti-crime police unit.